A Common Enemy
by VagueJester
Summary: It's been five years since the fall of Kronos at Mount Olympus, and Artemis has been tasked with hunting something that the other gods fear might be the harbinger of a new threat. When she does, however, she finds herself kidnapped and wakes up in a strange place populated by demigods, mortals, and several different spirits. Who are these people? And why did they take her?
1. Chapter 1

I groaned as a sharp pain in the middle of my forehead brought me out of unconsciousness. Opening my eyes, I looked around and found myself in a small unfamiliar room with stone walls and wooden flooring. There was a single window that looked out at the ocean, and a large door on the opposite side of the room that, after shakily standing up and ensuring I could still move, proved to be shut firmly, keeping me in the room. On top of that, my weapons were missing, and refused to come when I summoned them, and every attempt to transport myself out of this room only ended with me red-faced and panting.

 _Great_ , I thought, _the second Titanomachy is barely over for five years and I've already been captured. Again. Apollo is never going to let me live this down._

In the years since the second fall of Kronos at the hands of the demigod Perseus Jackson, strange happenings had been taking place not just around the United States, but around the world. Fewer and fewer demigods were arriving at either Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter, with the latter even seeing some of the younger legacies who were born in New Rome leaving with only a few of them returning years later. Strangely, my hunters were the only ones who regularly saw new additions, but each girl who came to us was already older than eighteen, and all of them somehow happened to find us. Each person returned with dramatically increased combat skills, with the girls joining my Hunt defeating my lieutenant, Thalia, with ease when it came to close-quarters combat. They would then reveal that they had joined the Hunt because they wished to improve their skills in archery, among other things, as their previous instructor was unable to guide them in that case (and whenever it came up, they would always regard one another with sly grins, like they were sharing some sort of secret joke with one another).

Stranger still was the fact that these girls all seemed to know each other, and, like the few who had returned to New Rome, all of them constantly wore strange, silver pendants around their necks depicting a wolf's head.

When questioned about their pendants, every one of them would only reveal that it was in case they ever wanted to return to where they had been taken, before revealing that they were sworn to secrecy and physically unable to reveal anything else.

This immediately led the Olympian Council to question Lupa, the Wolf Mother, but she denied she or her offspring having anything to do with the rampant disappearances. She did allude to having some idea as to who was responsible, but stubbornly refused to say anything despite many threats from my father and a few others on the Council. The next day, she vanished without a trace, and once again we were left without any clues as to who was taking the demigods until one day, while hunting a group of basilisks that had been causing trouble in the Midwest, my hunters and I happened another group of demigods already dealing with them. By the time we had positioned ourselves and drawn the first arrows, the monsters had already been dealt with, and each of my newcomers had taken off at a run to join the other group, greeting them cries of happiness and tight embraces like they were all old friends who hadn't seen one another in a long time.

It turned out that wasn't an inaccurate assumption, as each of the young men and women in the group proudly wore necklaces depicting a wolf head that shone in the Texan sun. Even more irritating was the complete lack of respect they showed me and the other hunters. Rather than fall to their knees like any other mortal, the leader of the group, a young man named John, stepped forward and merely inclined his head before greeting me. The boy explained that he and his comrades were out on a training exercise while someone they simply referred to as the Alpha recruited a few others, and questioned their friends on their experience with the Hunt and when they would be returning to wherever they had come from.

Upon closer inspection of the group, I was astounded to find that they were comprised of both demigods and regular mortals. I was normally the only one who allowed the two to work together, and had been wondering why I had seen so few candidates among them to join my hunters in the last few years.

Once again, Lupa was suspected, when I reported what I had learned to the Council, and my father was beginning to worry that someone was building an army. We had met a few others, both demigod and mortal, who wore the lupine pendants and claimed to be part of a group called the Lost, but as my father grew more desperate, he began pressuring me more and more to lean on the handful of hunters who had joined me that also bore the pendants. I tried to convince him that the girls were sworn to secrecy, and therefore physically unable to reveal anything more about this elusive group, but my father refused to listen and it culminated in three of my girls being brought before the Council where they were harshly interrogated for hours, until one of them, breaking down into tears, clutched at her pendant and a frigid wind blew through Olympus. An echoing howl filled the Throne Room, and every god save myself, Demeter, Hera, and Hermes seemed to shiver in what a more suicidal individual might call fright. Then, a large black wolf strode through the doors without a sound. Its body looked like darkness given form, with fur that seemed to almost radiate shadow the same way the torches around us did light with the exception of three pale streaks on the top of its head, and glared at us with eyes that were aflame, like Hestia's, except, where her warm amber flames brought feelings of comfort and safety, the wolf's eyes were the same rich, destructive green as greek fire and burned just as fiercely. I'm ashamed to admit that even I hesitated at the sight of an unfamiliar monster barging into Olympus - into the the Throne Room of the Gods - especially that felt as powerful as this one. My moment of weakness passed, though, and I had just knocked an arrow and drawn the string when the girls all ran to the beast and embraced it, burying their faces in its long, shaggy fur.

"Last warning," the wolf snarled in a deep, rumbling voice, its lips curling back to reveal a dangerous set of teeth before another arctic wind blasted through the Throne Room, making us all close our eyes, and when we opened them, the girls and the wolf were both gone.

After that display of insolent and threatening behaviour(at least that was how my father had described it), I was ordered to hunt down the wolf and capture it, which I was more than happy to do when I returned to my camp to find it looked like a tornado had passed through, and Thalia reported that the remaining two girls who bore pendants were gone. I notified Thalia that I would be hunting down the perpetrator on my own, and she agreed to take the Hunt to Camp Half-Blood - though I didn't miss the concerned expression on her face as she no doubt thought about the last time I went off on a solo hunt under orders of our father. For a solid month I searched fruitlessly for the wolf as demigods and homeless people from all over the Western World continued vanishing without a trace. Occasionally, the families of the demigods would as well, and when I tried interrogating those that didn't, they were tight-lipped and unexpectantly hostile.

My own wolves refused to track the scent of the wolf whenever it appeared, and even when I tried turning into one myself, I always found myself upwind of the creature, or would manage to track it all the way to a coast, only for it to suddenly vanish. Luckily, it had a set pattern of behaviour, so it wasn't too much of a challenge to bait the creature; I only needed to find a child in need - preferably a demigod - and wait patiently for my prey to come to me.

Eventually I settled on a small girl on living on the streets of San Diego. For two weeks, I watched as the girl lied, cheated, and stole from unsuspecting strangers. Worse yet, she seemed to genuinely enjoy her dishonourable behaviour, and when I transformed into a dog so as to keep my ears and nose open for any changes, I caught a whiff of the sickenly sweet perfume that indicated she was a demigod - and a daughter of Aphrodite at that. As much as I disliked the Goddess of Love, I was glad that I had found a prime piece of bait.

While I knew this illusive Alpha harbored both demigods and mortals, there was no way to reliably find a homeless person that it would happen to also be targeting. A demigod, however, was sure to lure it in.

I spent another six weeks disguised as various animals around the San Diego area, constantly searching the air for any unfamiliar scents. The last thing I remembered was finally catching a whiff of something before everything became a blur.

The sound of the door opening brought me back to the present and I cursed my defenselessness as I turned to face my captors.

The door swung open to reveal a large, muscular man dressed in a crisp, button-up shirt tucked into a pair of jeans. At this proximity, with just the two of us present, I could sense that he was definitely a demigod, however, for some reason, I couldn't tell whose child he was; normally I could instinctively tell who the sire of each demigod I met was, but it seemed that whatever was blocking my other godly powers was stopping that too. The man had dark, messy curls on top of of his head that connected with a beard that almost reminded me of my father, except there was a distinctly windswept look to him. He had harsh, dark eyes that that looked me up and down with a careful, calculating eye, seemingly ignoring me as I glared at him, which only made me angrier. On one of his hips there was a modern-looking gun that hummed with the familiar resonance of celestial bronze, while on his other hung a wicked-looking cutlass.

"Good to see yeh finally decided to join us, Milady," he grunted.

"Who are you?" I demanded. "Where are we? Why did you kidnap me?"

"There will be time to answer all of your questions soon, Milady," the man replied. "Right now, I need yeh ter be followin' me."

"And if I say no?" I challenged, crossing my arms angrily.

"Then none of the questions you or the other gods have will be answered," the man countered. "Yeh'll be given a wee potion to get rid of the memories you have what be associated with this place, and brought back to yer hunters unharmed. Also, I should be tellin' yeh now," he added. "There be no turning anybody into jackalopes here. Myself and me men have spent long enough as rodents for several lifetimes, and made preparations so as to not repeat the experience, so I wouldn't be bothering ter - HEY!"

Rather than continue listening to yet another man continue to boast and brag, I quickly rushed my captor, delivering a sharp punch to his throat with one hand while my other reached down and pulled his cutlass from its scabbard on his waist and spun low, slicing open both his calves and sprinting away before he had even crumpled to the ground.

As I ran, I reached inward and called upon the magic within me. Many of my abilities may have been somehow inaccessible to me, but it seemed that only those that had to do with leaving my current prison with ease were blocked off, as I was able to still transform myself into a variety of animals as I blasted through hallway after hallway (though I still couldn't turn into any sort of bird, presumably for the same reason), in search of an exit. Eventually, I settled on a turning myself into a massive white wolf, and charged towards the now recognizable smell of saltwater in the air.

I finally reached a door to the outside, and plowed past the mortal holding it open as I came out onto what looked like an island paradise in the early years of its naissance. Short tropical trees grew sporadically, and a healthy coating of grass was starting to grow through the hard, volcanic ground beneath my paws. Small buildings made of stone stood grouped together, with small signs indicating shops and other services used from day to day. There were at least thirty people outside with me, all going about their own business before spotting me and freezing. Surprisingly, most of them reached for their weapons, and I growled a low warning at these humans, making them hesitate. What was more shocking still, though, was their expressions: many of them looked fearful, but it wasn't what was causing them to still their hands. Instead, it looked like they were simply indecisive, as if they weren't sure if they should attack me or not.

"It's alright, everyone," a voice called out, drawing my attention. Out of one of the buildings strolled _another_ man. This one, however, was much larger than the last. He had to be close to eight feet tall, and was dressed casually in a pair of baggy shorts and loose button-up that hung open revealing tanned skin with a multitude of scars around his midriff. His dark hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and his grey eyes shone with warmth from his heavily scarred face.

"Prometheus," I snarled.

 **A/N: So, I've been looking around, and I found that there aren't many Percy/Artemis fics, and those that have been written usually center around Percy becoming the Guardian of the Hunt, or Artemis seeing him as the only male in the entire world that's not a piece of slime. While I know I'm not going to be avoiding a few cliches myself, I did want to try writing something that was a little different. The war with the giants hasn't happened yet, but this is taking place five years after the fall of Kronos. I'll try not to spend entire chapters trying to rush through everything that has happened since, like I did here, but hopefully framing it as Artemis trying to piece together how she got where she is made it a bit more bearable. The POV will mainly shift between Percy and Artemis for the duration of the story, but that's because I want this to be more about them, meaning there will be times where things will happen off-screen, so to speak, and we'll learn about them through second-hand accounts.**

 **I know that I'm gonna be getting a lot of hate for starting yet another fic when I have so many unfinished projects, but I just got back from Spain and have been itching to do some writing involving Greek Gods and other similar things. I'm sorry for disappointing anyone, but, this account is ultimately a platform to share my hobby with people. I'm not paid to do any of this, so when I have the free time to do what I love, I'd rather enjoy it than wasting it trying to force out something that won't meet my standards for myself.**

 **With that said, I hope you guys liked this little preview, and tell me what you think in the reviews.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Hello, Artemis," Prometheus said calmly as I stood over him, my paw on his chest and my teeth near his throat.

"Give me one reason I shouldn't tear your throat out now, you coward," I growled, my anger growing at his nonplussed expression.

"Because it would be rather rude?" He asked, smirking.

"There may not be any vultures present, but don't think I won't tear out your liver myself," I threatened, only to stiffen as I sensed the people behind me draw their weapons, their minds made up.

"Milady," a young woman said, stepping forward. She was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt underneath a breastplate with a wolf's head depicted on her breast. In one hand, she held a shield, and in her other a golden spear that she kept pointed towards the ground in an attempt to show she meant no harm, but was ready just in case. _She must be one of the Romans_ , I thought as I felt myself shift aspects. This just made me more annoyed with everything that had happened to me and I growled as I stared into the girl's eyes. "Please, remove yourself from him. Otherwise you will have to be moved."

"Was that a threat?" I snarled, my vision turning red near the edges as the mixture of Greek and Roman demigods in the area forced my aspects to blend and made my head hurt. "You dare threaten _me_ , one of the Olympian Gods?"

"We only submit to our Alpha, the Oathbreaker!" A voice called from the crowd. My eyes widened as they landed on the speaker. It was Hannah, one of the girls that had come to join my Hunt, and left with the others after the interrogation on Olympus.

 _The_ _Oathbreaker?_ That wasn't a title I could attribute to anyone of note, nor one that inspired a great deal of confidence.

"A rather sinister title for someone seemingly of such high esteem, wouldn't you think, Artemis?" Prometheus asked. "Or is it Diana right now? All these humans who were kept separated coming together can make things rather confusing, can't they?"

My head throbbed with pain as a boy stepped forward to stand next to the girl. This time, a Greek.

"The Lost don't recognize rank as reason to surrender, Milady," he explained, but I barely heard him over the pounding in my head.

"Then you should recognize it as reason to keep your head, _boy_ ," I roared. "We maintain your world and keep you safe from horrors beyond your comprehension. We deserve to be treated as such!"

"You may believe that, Milady," the girl replied with forced calm as my power started leaking out, making the humans tremble. "But -"

"NO!" I bellowed. I was tired of being the one who was captured. Who needed saving. I wouldn't stand for these disrespectful. . . _heretics_ , and their pet titan keeping me here a moment longer. I crouched low to the ground, my eyes locked on the girl before me as she and the others readied themselves, like they stood a chance against a god of Olympus, and prepared to pounce when another voice interrupted me.

"Stop."

I turned my head and growled as a massive wolf padded out of the trees. It had beautiful brick-red fur that swayed in the breeze as it looked down at us with silver eyes like mist on a lake.

"Lupa," I growled, allowing myself to grow to as large as I could while in the shape of a wolf as well - which was just over a foot shorter than her at the shoulder.

"Hello, Diana," Lupa replied, and I nearly sagged with relief as the focus of a being as powerful as Lupa kept my aspect from constantly changing.

"I would ask that you refrain from harming the humans," she paused. "And the titan."

"Do you have any idea who this is?!" I snarled, jerking my snout towards where Prometheus lay still on the ground.

"I do," Lupa growled, and I felt her power clash against mine, telling me that she wasn't about to submit to me either. "But the Lost don't judge an individual based on their past. It is their present and future actions once they have joined us that define them."

"And who are you to decide he gets to escape punishment?"

"I don't," she answered simply. "The Alpha did."

"On what authority?" I demanded. "What power gives this Alpha more power than my father?"

"And what authority does your father, and the rest of you, have to rule over us?" Lupa countered.

"I'd watch your tone, Wolf Mother," I growled, my power surging forth and overwhelming her.

"Diana," Lupa whimpered as she and the humans began to tremble before the power I held within myself. "Control yourself."

"You dare command me?!" I shouted, fury boiling inside me like liquid fire when a soft breeze ruffled my fur and a deep, thunderous growl shook the ground beneath my paws and I turned around to see two green, burning eyes staring at me from a mass of shadows.

"Enough."

The Alpha stood a good three feet taller than me at the shoulder, and looked down at me with gentle rage. Already, I could feel his power completely eclipsing my own in this form, making me want to lie down and expose my belly for him, but I banished those feelings with a surge of anger.

Never again would I expose myself like that. I've already felt the pain that comes from lowering my guard in such a fashion once before, and there was no way this _animal_ would make me, Artemis - Diana - whichever, Goddess of the _Hunt_ submit to him. With another roar, I launched myself at him, and the male regarded me with disappointment, before his lips curled back and he released a bark that shook me like my father had just unleashed his master bolt right in front of me. Faster than I expected, given his size, the dark wolf raised up on his hind legs and swatted me with his massive front paws.

No matter how fiercely I fought back, though, the Alpha simply returned it in kind, with interest. He was bigger, faster, and stronger than me. I managed to land a few good bites on his shoulders and side, but I quickly found myself tiring, and eventually he managed to force me to the ground and clamp his powerful jaws around my throat, growling savagely as I tried to fight back until, finally, I gave up and decided to change strategies. Clearly, I wouldn't be able to beat this beast while maintaining the form of one as well, but in the form of a human, I'd have the advantage of agility, and would easily be able to disarm one of the spectators and take down this creature.

Before I had even finished changing shape, I barreled into the surrounding crowd and grabbed one of the boys who had the audacity to yell at me by the wrist, yanking the sword he had drawn out of his hand with a small crunch. Everyone in the crowd's eyes widened as the boy cried out in pain, but I ignored them and turned around to face the beast only to find it had completely vanished. I casted my vision around trying to catch a glimpse of where he could be, but found nothing. Instead, all I felt was yet another gentle breeze blowing through my hair before a kick struck me in the back with enough force to lift me off the ground and send me flying ten feet away.

Rolling upon landing, I spun in place and found a man kneeling above the boy, with his back to me, wearing nothing as the females of the crowd either looked away with faces burning scarlet, or gazed upon the sculpted lines of his musculature with open hunger. His back was littered with small scars that I could tell were from both blade and claw alike.

"Are you alright, James?" He asked softly.

"I - I'm fine," the boy replied. "I'm sorry, by the time I knew what was happening, she was already on top of me."

"Don't be," the man replied, his voice gentle as he helped the boy, James, to his feet. Standing up, the man towered over all the other humans at six and a half feet. "It was my fault for not being here when she woke up. Lupa, could you please take him to get healed?"

"Perhaps I better do it," Prometheus offered. "It was my presence that sparked this little tantrum of hers in the first place."

"You are pretty annoying," the man conceded, prompting chuckles from the titan.

"What exactly is going on here?" I demanded, brandishing the sword at the nude figure before me.

The man turned to face me, and I finally got my first glimpse of his face. He had a square jaw, and straight nose, with thick stubble covering his chin and neck, and a scar curving around the left side of his face, over his eye which glared at me with a fire in its sea-green depths. His mane of shaggy, black hair hung around his face as his lips curled up in a snarl. I had no doubt that, were he not glaring at me with lethal intent, he would be just as handsome as any of the subjects of great sculptures of the past.

 _Though he seems noticeably larger in certain areas,_ a traitorous voice whispered as I looked him up and down.

"You don't make demands here, Agrotera," he snarled and my eyes widened as both my divine aspects gave way to one older than either. "You are a guest in my home, act like it."

"A guest?!" I repeated angrily.

"That's right," he replied, turning around. "Follow me."

Without another word the crowd dispersed and returned to going about their business while the man continued to walk away, not even bothering to look back at me. Growling to myself, I trotted after him. "Stop! Explain who you are and what's going on here, now!" I shouted, but the man simply ignored me and continued strolling back to the building where I had woken up.

"Hey!" I shouted as I ran after him. "I am talking to you!"

"No," the man replied simply, not looking back at me. "You're yelling at me."

"Because you refuse to slow down!"

"Because you expect me to."

"Of course I do," I huffed angrily. "I am a goddess."

"So?" He asked, reminding me of the crowd from earlier and what Lupa had been saying. "I've met several gods and goddesses. What makes you any different?"

"Percy," Lupa said as she padded over. "Please stop provoking her. We only just managed to avoid any casualties."

"Tell that to James," Percy growled. Wait. . .

"Percy? Percy Jackson?" I asked, my disbelief clear. No one had seen or heard from Percy Jackson since the end of the second Titanomachy. "What's going on?"

"If you had just followed Edward in the first place, instead of attacking my friends for no reason," Percy replied angrily.

"You took me prisoner!" I interrupted. "Of course I would try to escape."

"No one said you were our prisoner," he countered. "From what Edward told me, one of the first things he told you was that you were free to leave whenever you want. In fact, I can swear by the Styx that if I hadn't brought you here, you would definitely be prisoner to someone else." There was a moment of silence before he added "or dead." and the familiar distant boom of thunder indicated he was telling the truth.

"He also told me that you would dose me with a potion so that I forgot everything I saw here."

Percy shrugged as he led the way into a large room with a bed and dresser near the far wall, a fireplace to our right, and a desk with a coat hanger to our left. "You could always not take it," he said, stepping around the bed and pulling out some clothes, dressing himself in a pair of jeans and a plain, white t-shirt before going over to the coat hanger and grabbing what looked like the exact same black, hooded duster that he had given to the boy earlier. "But most people do."

"And why is that?"

"Because, this place is a secret. One that you'll keep regardless of whether you want to or not," another voice added softly and I spun around to find a figure floating behind me. He had four wings coming out of his back, and was dressed in a toga like we all used to in the old days. His face was indescribably plain, and his hair a boring shade of brown. My eyes widened as I started to piece everything together.

"You," I whispered, fear gripping my soul as the figures dangerously intelligent eyes regarded me.

"Hello, Agrotera," Harpocrates said, his voice barely audible. "I'm surprised you remembered me."

Suddenly, I remembered what the people addressed Percy as, and I whirled around on him angrily. "How could you?" I demanded. "Have you any idea what you've done, boy?"

"I do," Percy replied, undaunted. "I freed a being who was being unfairly punished just for existing. Something I, and most demigods, are pretty familiar with."

"Harpocrates has the potential of wiping away every aspect of Olympus, you foolish boy!" I shouted.

"Harpocrates," Percy said, turning his attention to the floating god behind me. "Have you ever tried to use your powers over secrets, silence, and confidentiality to seal away all knowledge of Olympus, making the gods all fade because of it?"

"You know, my friend, I can't say that I have," Harpocrates replied with an amused smile. "Of course, that didn't stop Zeus from imprisoning me anyway."

"How would you even know how to free him anyway?" I demanded.

"I didn't," Percy admitted. "It was in freeing someone else who was unfairly imprisoned by your dad that I happened to free him. Since then, I've been taking in anyone I thought needed a home, or protection from the influences of Olympus."

"What are you talking about? Why would anyone need protection from us?" I demanded. "Unless, of course, they were involved in something that would draw our wrath."

"I don't know," Percy drawled, sarcasm dripping from his tone. "Why don't we ask the booming jackalope population? Or how about Medusa? Or Arachne?"

"That's -" I began only to be interrupted as Percy raised his hand.

"I'm not looking for excuses," he said firmly, making me flush with anger. How dare he interrupt me like that? "Nor do I owe you any explanations. I saved you because you were, at one point, one of the few Olympians I had some measure of respect for, and your lieutenant is a good friend of mine."

I was about to reply when a knock on the door drew all of our attention and I turned to see the large, bearded man who had greeted me when I first woke up standing in the doorway.

"Apologies fer the interruption," he grunted. "But I just received an Iris Message from the _Dawn._ Seein' as yer back too, I figured it be time for us to discuss our next move."

"All right," Percy replied with a nod before turning back to me. "If you want to leave, Harpocrates will take you to get a potion before returning you to your hunters."

"And if I choose not to take the potion?" I challenged only to be surprised when Percy's eyes softened.

"We won't force you," he said, his previous stoicism nowhere to be seen. "You won't be able to so much as hint at the existence of this place or any of the people living here."

"I think I'll manage," I replied angrily.

"Agrotera," Harpocrates said, his voice barely above a murmur. "You know your fellow Council members. Your father. If you reveal that you know anything, they will try to get you to reveal it. My power will not allow it."

"I'll find a way," I growled. "Olympus needs to know that their missing hero is conspiring against them."

Once again, I expected Percy to react with anger at the accusation, but he just sighed and looked at me with what seemed dangerously close to pity.

"You do what you have to," he said softly, reaching into his desk he pulled out a familiar, wolf-shaped pendant. "If you ever need a safe place for yourself or your hunters, you can use this to call me."

I scoffed and snatched the pendant out of his hand, concealing my glee. Even if I was bound by Harpocrates' power, this would be more than enough proof to convince my father. With one last sigh of defeat, Percy nodded to Harpocrates and I felt myself being surrounded by a foreign power as I was flashed away.

 **A/N: So, before anyone asks, the reason Percy was able to so easily handle Artemis in a fight will be elaborated on later. He isn't ridiculously OP, but he has been growing more and more powerful over the five years since the war with Kronos. Even so, most of his power is combat-oriented. Also he still sucks at archery.**

 **Anyway, we've now been introduced to the Alpha, and it was no surprise to anyone that Percy was his true identity. Harpocrates was a real figure in Greek mythology, but I don't recall him really being used in PJO or HOO, so he's officially my own OC. There were also some cameos of other characters from the books if you tilt your head and squint. Next chapter will be from Percy's POV, so hopefully some of your questions will be answered, but don't expect a long chapter of exposition explaining what the heck is going on. That being said, there were a few hints pointing to what happened sprinkled about, and I'd love to read your predictions and inferences.**


	3. Chapter 3

I cursed to myself as Harpocrates flashed back into my room, causing him, Lupa, and Edward to look at me with raised eyebrows.

"She still had James' sword," I explained, and the three of them laughed as I stood up to follow them out of the room.

"Only you would be concerned about that," Lupa replied, shrinking slightly so she could accompany the rest of us through the winding halls of my house/office/base of operations.

"Of course I am," I countered as we entered the meeting room. I had specifically placed the room where it was not long after I started building when I discovered that the Labyrinth had somehow come back, despite me having seen Daedalus die with my own eyes. Harpocrates thinks that it has to do with the Labyrinth being such a famous myth, as well as so many cultures around the world having stories about mazes, that it reformed on its own without its creator's life force. As soon as we found that our little island had an entrance, though, I asked Harpocrates to seal it with as much of his power as possible before informing everyone who came to live with us where it was. That way, if anything happened and my friends needed a quick escape, they would know where to go, but only I could bring people in on the secret, otherwise, for them, it simply wouldn't exist. I looked above my seat at the massive round table, where the shattered pieces of my oldest companion were mounted on the wall and smiled fondly. "There's a special bond between a boy and his first sword."

"No innuendo to be found there at all," Prometheus drawled as he strolled in.

"Speaking of which," Hecate added as she followed close behind. "Could you please try to avoid strutting around in the nude before I have to treat any more of your friends for aneurysms?"

"You know regular clothes don't survive my transformations," I countered as I took my seat. "Besides, I thought the Greeks were all about appreciating the human form?"

Hecate rolled her eyes and I grinned as the door opened one last time and Reyna walked in followed by Calypso. Soon we were all seated around the table, with Lupa reclining on a large, plush cushion.

"So," I said, calling the meeting to order. "Now that our guest has been returned to her hunters, why don't we get down to business. Calypso, how did things go with Nico?"

"I managed to get him just as he was leaving Camp Half-Blood," she replied. "He was a little resistant, but I managed to knock him out and force the potion down his throat."

I nodded. "That's good. Did you manage to leave the evidence of his kidnapping?"

"I did," she answered. "I assume this means things went as well on your end?"

"New Rome's Praetor will be waking up on a bus soon with no memory of who he is, along with two demigods I found along the way. If all goes according to plan, they'll suspect that the same person who took him is the one who stole the rest of their standards."

"What about the Goddess?" Hecate asked. "Our plan hinges on the Greeks and Romans being at each other's throats. She could ruin everything."

"She won't," Prometheus replied. "Not only will the gods be occupied by their two aspects fighting one another, but she, like all of us, is bound by Harpocrates power. In fact, if I had to guess, she would be the one on the Council most likely to come to see things our way."

"Please," I scoffed. "I may feel bad for how she's going to be treated in the near future, but she's an Olympian."

"We eventually got over ourselves," Hecate ventured. "Who's to say she couldn't?"

"If anyone could, it would be her," I conceded before a growl rumbled up my throat. "But I won't allow her or anyone to bring more danger to our home."

"Says the man plannin' on wagin' war on Olympus itself," Edward teased while Lupa's lips pulled back in a vicious grin and she cackled.

"Something you want to add, Wolf Mother?" I asked, forcing myself to calm down once again. It must have had to do with her being the Goddess of the Hunt, or something, but ever since I found that child of Lycaon dragging her away, I've been on edge. Even now, I could still smell her, and had to force myself to calm down before I went off and hunted her down myself.

"I believe young Perseus - or at least his wolf spirit - has stumbled across some of the more. . . base instincts that come with my blessing."

"Then I'll just have to learn how to control them," I decided. "I came far too close to hurting her last time."

Calypso chuckled and shook her head when I looked her way, causing me to roll my eyes. "Anyway, is there anything else we need to discuss?"

"My children have been praying to me a bit more," Hecate replied. "It seems that they one of their experiments has attracted more and more monsters to Camp Half-Blood. There haven't been any casualties yet, but they are afraid that the other campers are going to start blaming them."

"I can ask my sister if she could spare some warriors for the surrounding area," Reyna suggested.

I cringed at the mention of Reyna's sister and her Amazons. Between their enslavement of men, and the Hunters' desire to kill them, I could hardly decide who I had more distaste for. Then again, the Hunters never tried to seduce me whenever I saw them, so that was a definite point in their favour.

"You're going to have to get used to dealing with her at some point, Alpha," Reyna teased. "She and her girls are always asking when you'll come spend the night with them again."

Growling as the others laughed at me, I pinched the bridge of my nose. I had tried to get them to stop calling me Alpha, as I wanted all the leaders here to be on equal footing, but that never stopped them. Eventually I just gave up.

"Fine," I conceded. "Ask her. And remind her that she knows _exactly_ why I'm not thrilled at the idea of spending another night with her."

Reyna nodded, and Calypso took the opportunity to speak as well, her leg bouncing restlessly. "Are we nearly done?" She asked. "My crew and I are eager to get back out to sea, and we need to get some rest."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "You've barely been back at all over the last few weeks."

Calypso smiled and reached over to grab my hand. "I've spent too long in one place, Percy. I need to get back out and see the world I've been missing."

"I get that," I replied. "But the world isn't going anywhere. You can take some time to just relax at home."

"Just knowing that I have a home where I can come and go is enough," she said. "Besides, I think we're closing in on the location of Delos."

"All right," I said with a sigh of defeat. "I just worry about you is all." I may not have been able to properly return Calypso's feelings for me when I finally freed her, but she and I have grown closer and closer over the last few years. Nowadays, she was one of my best friends, and it gnawed at me to not know if she was safe when she and her invisible servants were at sea on their own searching for other people the gods had abandoned.

"And that's why you are the Alpha," Lupa said kindly. "Your concern for the pack overshadows even your spirit of dominance."

I smiled at her and turned back to the others who were nodding in agreement. We spent the next three hours discussing the more mundane, day-to-day aspects of our little island home. Once that was finished, I decided to take a walk around the island. I nodded to everyone I passed along the way as I took in the sights and smells of my new home. It had definitely come a long way from the slab of volcanic rock I had originally made when I freed Calypso and Harpocrates. Thanks to her amazing gardening skills, and some friends we made in the mortal world who provided us with the right seeds, she had been able to somehow create a little forest of her own in only two years. After that, the dryads who accompanied the new trees were able to take the reins and, in no time at all, our home was covered in greenery. Thanks to them, we were never short building materials so long as we respected them, and came to them when we needed wood and lumber. We weren't able to completely sustain ourselves yet, but we had just started introducing some animals into the forests to be hunted, and in a few years we would be able to do so with moderation; in the meantime, I thought it was actually good to have groups leave the island on occasion.

It gave the ones whose families hadn't been able to join us a chance to visit, and was good practice dealing with monsters in a safer group setting - especially for the mortals, who wouldn't be as used to the fact that all sorts of monsters from ancient myths existed and were usually out for their blood. Of course there was always the chance of them catching the attention of the Olympians, but thanks to the pendants that Prometheus and Hecate had made, I would be able to instantly get to them if they needed me.

This train of thought led me back to the Goddess of the Hunt. Of all the major gods, she was the one I felt the closest thing to respect for. Sure, I didn't approve of some of the things she taught her hunters, nor of how she acted when it came to most men or people in love, but she was the only one of the major gods who actually helped those in need and actively protected her hunters. I convinced myself that my relative respect for her was the reason I had saved her from Lycaon when he and his wolves had ambushed her, but there was some small part of me that doubted that. Something about the way I felt when I smelled the King of Werewolves practically slobbering over her had made me blind with anger as I hid the praetor I had just abducted and prepared to attack. Thankfully, I had retained enough common sense to turn back into a human and use the hood on my duster to turn myself invisible before dispatching the wolves one by one, making use of the blessing Zephyros had given me all those years ago to mask my scent. Silver might have been the only thing that would kill him, but I had no doubt that Lycaon would be nursing the assortment of broken bones and bruised ego for a while.

Without thinking, I had then brought Artemis back to the island and instructed Edward to watch over her while I finished the task I had originally left to do. Granted, that probably wasn't the best idea on my part, but it was in the past now, and there was nothing I could do about it. She had left, and would soon find just how strong Harpocrates' power to keep secrets was. To be honest, I really should have left it at that, but as I strolled through the little village we had built near the center of the island, I couldn't help but be worried about her. Harpocrates' powers would force her to lie about the island and everything she learned while here, but if that happened in front of the Council, and Apollo caught on, I had no doubt that Zeus would be more than a little unhappy she was keeping secrets from him.

"You seem troubled," a familiar voice said as I took a seat at the massive bonfire burning in the middle of our village. I turned to my right and smiled at the figure of a young woman with long, brown hair, and flaming eyes.

"Am I?" I asked, turning back to look into the dancing flame in front of me.

"If I had to guess," Hestia replied, and I could hear the smile in her voice. "I would say you are worried about my niece."

"More like worried about her siccing her hunters on us when she blames me for what her dad does," I countered. "I don't want to have to fight Thalia as well."

"And yet you orchestrate tensions between the two camps while preparing to wage war on my home."

"You know as well as I do that there's more to it than that," I snapped before taking a deep breath and glancing at the Goddess of the Hearth. "Sorry."

"It's fine," she said softly, placing a hand on my shoulder. "That being said, can you be sure that it's not Artemis blaming you that worries you, so much as the fact that you will blame yourself?"

"Maybe," I sighed. "Sure, she could definitely do with being knocked down a peg or two, but that doesn't mean I want her to suffer."

"Then what do you plan on doing about it?" Hestia asked.

"I don't know," I admitted. "I suppose there's no point, really, seeing as she and I will be enemies in a few week's time anyway."

"You know," Hestia said with a small smile as she turned to face the fire as well. "Artemis has always been my favourite niece. Despite preferring the company of her hunters and living primarily in the mortal world, she remains on the Council and deals with the abhorrent behaviour of her fellow members. Can you guess why?"

"Ego?" I replied jokingly.

Hestia shook her head. "Duty. She has a responsibility to her hunters. She, like the rest of us, may have forgotten or been warped by the burden of ruling alongside beings who have no love for the mortal world and care little for its happenings, but if you dig down to the core of her being, to the one who founded the Hunters, you would simply find a girl who would do anything to keep those she calls sisters safe from harm."

I found myself at a loss for words as I considered Hestia's words. The two of us sat there in silence for a long time as the sky got darker overhead. Eventually, Hestia stood up and put a hand on my shoulder.

"I'm sure you have much to think about and do," she said with that knowing smile she always wore when she knew what I was going to do before I did. "The winter solstice is in just a few weeks, so I doubt we will see each other until then, in which case, I wish you the best of luck, Perseus."

"Thanks," I replied, standing up in front of her as she wrapped her arms around me.

"Artemis might be my favourite niece," she whispered in a conspiratorial tone. "But remember who my favourite nephew is."

I returned the hug, absorbing as much of the comfort Hestia radiated as I could while I closed my eyes. "Stay safe," I whispered into her hair.

"I'm fairly certain I should be the one telling you that," she replied as we pulled apart.

"But we both know it won't happen," I finished, smiling at our little joke before she disappeared in a burst of flame.

I sighed as I turned away from the bonfire and walked back to my room before changing out of my clothes and shifting into my wolf form, figuring that a nice hunt might help me take my mind off things so I could come back tomorrow with a clear head.

After all, I had a war to win.

 **A/N: And here we are. A little bit of exposition, and an introduction to what Percy has been up to for the last five years. I know many of you can probably see where I'm going with this, but hopefully that doesn't take away from your enjoyment of the story as a whole. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it, and tell me what you think in the reviews.**


	4. Chapter 4

In the week since I was returned to my hunters, it became painfully clear just how powerful Harpocrates was. Not only was I unable to say anything about Perseus and his island of traitors, but I was also forced to actively work to keep his secrets. More than once I had attempted to assemble the Olympian Council, only to find myself stopping a moment before. I had even been forced to lie to Thalia, my trusted lieutenant, about where I had been and confess that I had been unable to track the mysterious wolf down.

On top of that, I had started to suffer from increasingly frequent headaches as I felt like I was being torn in two. The first inklings of fear dripped into my heart as I remembered how the last time I felt like this was just before the Civil War. If my instincts were right, then that meant that something was happening between the Greek and Roman demigods, which meant it was only a matter of time before almost all the gods found themselves incapacitated for fear of being driven insane by our twin aspects being at war with themselves.

However, I wasn't completely powerless. I immediately began to quietly investigate Percy Jackson and everything that had happened to him in the five years since his defeat of Kronos. In order to - unwillingly - avoid arousing suspicion, I began by casually speaking with Thalia about her friends at Camp Half-Blood. We were slowly making our way there as I would be occupied during the upcoming solstice, so it gave me a convenient opening. She told me about how her friend Annabeth was working with her mother as the architect for much of the repairs on Mount Olympus. Her friend Grover, the satyr, had been hard at work with the other nature spirits on the mission Pan had assigned him. It was interesting to gleam this sort of insight about my lieutenant, considering Zoe had been completely devoted to the Hunt as well as having millenia for us to really get to know one another.

"And what of the son of Poseidon?" I eventually asked. "I noticed that you have remained rather silent concerning him."

"Well, there's not really much to say," Thalia admitted with a sigh. "No one at Camp Half-Blood feels that inclined to look for him for some reason."

"Not even Annabeth?" I continued. "I had the impression the two of them were rather close."

"So did I," Thalia replied. "But every time I asked her about it, she would just make some excuse about being overwhelmed helping her mom or her responsibilities at Camp. Chiron and Nico seem to be the only ones who care about where he's gone."

"So no one has even tried to find him?" I surmised.

"Not really," Thalia admitted, her face reddening with a surprising amount of shame. "Nico knows he's alive, so he keeps an eye on the underworld to see if any of the recently departed have heard of him, and I'm keeping an eye out in the land of the living, but the trail went cold years ago."

"But there was a trail?" I prodded further.

"As much of a trail as someone like Percy can leave," she replied, eyeing me warily. "If I may, Milady, why the sudden interest?"

 _Because he's alive and building some sort of army filled with Titans and rogue gods,_ I thought, but instead found myself saying, "Perseus is the savior of Olympus and Vanquisher of Kronos. It seems odd that none would know where he has disappeared to."

"I just hope he hasn't gotten himself captured or something," Thalia said. "Before it went cold, it was pretty easy to track him by the widespread destruction."

"Oh?"

Thalia nodded, looking into the fire wistfully as she remembered. "It started with one of the largest earthquakes I had ever heard of in the heart of Manhattan - Nico and I think he must have been attacked by something pretty dangerous if he used that much power - then there's a string of incidents on the mortal news that steadily head west which we think are monster attacks, but Nico's followed them all the way to the coast, before it just vanishes."

"He is a son of Poseidon," I offered. "The ocean is unlikely to stop him. In fact, it may have been his destination all along."

"Maybe," she conceded. "But then why wouldn't Lord Poseidon say something?"

"What about his mortal family?" I continued. "Have either you or Nico tried speaking with them?"

Thalia cringed before her eyes got foggy. "We. . . did, I think. However, the two of us are children of the Big Three. It's considered. . . bad form for regular demigods to visit the moral parents of others without precautions, even more so for those of us with particularly attractive scents."

"So, did his family have anything to add?"

"I. . . I'm not sure Milady," Thalia replied distantly. "I-I remember visiting his mom and talking to her, but I can't remember what exactly we talked about. It probably wasn't very helpful, though. He wouldn't do anything that could risk his mother and step-father."

"I see," I replied before standing and looking around the camp. "I apologise for wasting your time, Thalia."

"Not at all, Milady," she replied. "It's always a pleasure talking to you."

"In any case, have a good night Thalia." I gave her a nod as she wished me a good night as well, and returned to my camp, my hand at my chest where, for some inexplicable reason, there hung a pendant with a silver wolf head on it.

"Why would you do this, Perseus?" I asked myself quietly. "Why abandon your friends?"

"Because, I had to," a voice said from behind me as a soft breeze fluttered through my hair. I whirled around and found myself staring up into the deep green eyes of the man I was so focussed upon. He stood at the entrance to my tent, his arms crossed over his chest while the rest of his form was concealed by the long, floor-length duster he wore.

"You!" I snarled, summoning my hunting knives only to freeze in place.

"Sorry," he said insincerely, shrugging his shoulders. "But attacking me would reveal my secret without my permission."

"Don't. . . think this will stop me," I growled, exerting as much willpower as I could and slowly breaking through the restriction.

"I didn't need it to stop you," he countered, staring into my eyes. "Only slow you down long enough to realise that attacking me forfeits any chance of me answering your questions."

Gritting my teeth, I glared at him as I reluctantly lowered my arms. "Fine," I conceded. "You can start by telling me what's stopping me from turning you into a jackalope this instant."

This made him growl as well and take a step toward me, seemingly growing taller while his eyes glowed with power. "I am. There's only one animal I turn into, and only I change myself."

I narrowed my eyes and focused my power on him, only to be startled as I felt it being stopped by his own. "There's no way," I gasped. "I'm a god!"

"I'm aware," he said lowly, sending a shiver up my spine. "That doesn't mean you're all powerful though, does it?"

"How could you possibly be this strong?" I demanded.

"You're asking the wrong questions," he replied, taking another step forward.

"Fine," I conceded. "Then tell me why you're here."

"I came to talk to you."

"About what?"

His hardened gaze softened for a moment, and I saw a glimpse of something strange in his expression. "Join me, Agrotera."

I suddenly realised that I had slipped into the familiar comfort of my oldest aspect, even as I stared at this man in disbelief.

"You must be joking."

"I'm not," he replied seriously. "Olympus is corrupt and run by people more concerned with themselves than the world they're supposed to take care of. I plan on changing that."

"Many have tried before, Perseus, and none have succeeded," I said derisively, rolling my eyes at the arrogance of yet another male.

"I know," he countered. "I stopped the last one."

"And what makes you think you could do better than the Titans?" I inquired.

"Because, it needs to be done. The Olympians are headed towards their own destruction unless someone steps in and fixes things."

"I happen to be one of those Olympians," I remarked casually. "Why would I help you overthrow myself?"

"I'm not looking to overthrow any of the Olympians," he replied. "It's this system of indifference and the expectations of complete control that I plan on tearing down."

"You're naive if you think you can. This is the way the world is, there's no point trying to change it. The best you can do is use it to protect those closest to you."

"Like you do?" He asked. My eyes widened as I realised my slip up. "You hate the way things work now, don't you? The way the council frolics about messing with mortals and having demigods before disappearing and leaving the rest of us to clean up the mess? The way they ignore everything that doesn't directly affect them while assuming they can just make demands whenever they want from whoever they want? What about the unfair way they've treated other immortals over the years?"

I averted my eyes and looked over his shoulder, peering at the stars through the flap of my tent before hardening myself as my aspect changed once more.

"This is nothing but the whining of a mortal disguised as rhetoric," I hissed. "You are simply looking to take our power for yourself just like everyone else, and, just like everyone else, you _will_ fail."

Perseus sighed and lowered his head in what looked almost like disappointment - further angering me - before looking at me with hardened emeralds.

"Do it for your hunters then," he said. "Not even I can stop Harpocrates' power from making you keep our secrets, and when the Council finds out you're lying to them, how long do you think it will take for Thalia and the others to suffer in your place?"

"They wouldn't do that!" I insisted angrily.

"Not at first," he conceded. "But your dad will get tired of torturing you eventually, and when that happens, he'll turn to other ways of making you talk."

"Then you shouldn't have released him in the first place!" I hissed. "There was a reason he was imprisoned!"

"It's not his fault he was given those domains," he countered. "I'm not going to stand by and let someone be treated like that just because of who they are."

"And that's why you'll never take Olympus," I spat. "The arrogance present in your entire gender is only matched by your bleeding heart and lack of foresight."

"I'd rather have a bleeding heart than one that's been frozen solid," he retorted, whirling in place as he went to leave me tent. "I don't know who hurt you, but you need to ask yourself if you're more concerned for the safety of these girls or simply spreading the hate you feel as far as you can."

My eyes widened and I stepped back as if struck. A gentle breeze blew through the tent, and I blinked my eyes, only to find he had vanished.

Anger filled me as I rushed out of the tent and transported myself to my chariot. From my perch in the sky, I focused on finding him, and narrowed in on the speeding form of a wolf running faster than any creature I had ever seen move. Figuring that must be him, I flashed myself into several miles ahead of him, and summoned my bow. I took a deep breath as I drew the string and waited for him to approach. Another breeze blew against my back and I cursed before returning to my chariot. As I thought, he had smelled me on the wind and changed course at the last minute. Once more, I tried flashing myself in his path, only for another breeze to blow and send my scent to warn him.

I returned to my chariot, but when I looked down at the ground, I couldn't find him anywhere. I spent the rest of the night carefully examining the ground as I drove the moon across the sky, but not once did I catch a single glimpse of him. This only made me angrier, but as I returned to my hunters and greeted a yawning Thalia, my anger was forced aside to make way for concern.

Over the next week, I found myself suffering more and more. While I hadn't had any Wiccans in several decades, allowing me to maintain control over my form, it didn't spare me from the pain of the rising tensions between my Greek and Roman sides, especially because I spent so much time in the mortal world. Thalia, so far, was the only one I had told about the existence of the Romans, and she confessed to having a younger brother who their mother always referred to as the son of Jupiter before abandoning him in the woods somewhere in California. I told her that I was suffering because both my aspects were starting to come into conflict with one another, and reassured her that I would be better once I made it to Olympus, where I would be able to focus on one aspect entirely.

Between my bouts of pain, however, I couldn't stop thinking about what Perseus had said. I tried to convince myself that he was just trying to trick me into joining him by using my Hunters against me, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't shake the seed of worry that had planted itself in my heart. I knew my father would want a report on the progress of my hunt for Perseus' wolf form, which meant I would have to lie, and either be called out by Apollo, or, barring that, face the consequences of failing a mission given to me by Zeus himself.

I found myself suddenly understanding why most people that didn't want to stay with Perseus chose to take the potion and erase their memories. Between the pain of my headaches, and my dread at the coming meeting, I started to wonder if maybe I should take him up on his offer. I still wore the wolf-shaped pendant around my neck for some reason, so it would be no trouble to call him.

In fact a part of me - one that I hated with a vengeance - actually wanted to see him again. Something about him called out to the hunter in me, but rather than the desire to claim him as another trophy, I found myself wanting to work _with_ him. To track down worthy prey and coordinate with one another as we worked to take it down.

That desire would usually fade, however, when I remembered the way he spoke to me. Not only did he insult me and the other Olympians, he had implied that I didn't care for my hunters. No one had ever spoken to me like that and walked away without an arrow sticking out of them, at least. And here comes this. . . this _male_ and he thinks he can chastise me? He dares to look into my eyes and not shrink away in fear? Worse yet, he has the audacity to stare at me with those eyes of his, glinting with hidden danger one moment while promising comfort and security the next?

My anger towards him carried even into my dreams where I would see those accursed green eyes, beckoning me to join him. Even as I stood in my tent, preparing to leave and answer the summons to the Council, his eyes were in the back of my mind as I took a deep, steadying breath and flashed myself to Olympus where I would find the answer to at least a few of my questions.

 **A/N: So, Percy and Artemis are really at each other's throats, huh? Also we now see that despite him having supposedly vanished, only Nico, Thalia, and Chiron seem to really care. Next chapter will probably be from Percy's PoV, so get ready for that. Also, those of you wondering how he could possibly overpower Artemis when she tried to transform him, I will preemptively remind you of what he said on the matter, and that you are asking the wrong questions. Anyway, hope you guys liked it and tell me what you think in the reviews. Thanks also to those of you that have followed and favourited, it really means a lot.**


	5. Chapter 5

Clenching my teeth, I silently cursed myself and whatever hero complex it was that inspired me to be waiting, invisible, inside the Olympian Throne Room while the major gods gathered for their bi-annual meeting. I was sitting next to Hestia in front of the hearth as we waited for Zeus to appear and summon the others, and couldn't help but scowl at her as she calmly looked into the merrily dancing flames, a smirk on her face.

"Shut up," I muttered petulantly, making her chuckle.

"I didn't say anything," Hestia replied, her smile widening.

"No, but I know what you were thinking," I replied. "Calypso had the exact same look on her face."

"And what, exactly, do you assume is on my mind?" She asked jovially.

"That doing something this stupid is exactly what you expected me to do in the first place," I answered.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Hestia said with faux innocence, her smile growing still.

"Sure," I conceded sarcastically, rolling my eyes before realising that I was invisible and she wouldn't be able to see my expression in the first place.

"You just forgot you were invisible and rolled your eyes, didn't you?"

"It's official, you and I have spent _way_ too much time together," I groused.

Hestia laughed, her warm eyes crinkling with joy as the sound filled me with comfort and helped me relax. The feeling quickly passed as a loud, rumbling boom rolled through the air, shaking the ground beneath me and making my teeth chatter as I shot to my feet and quickly made my way over to the tall, plain black chair that appeared next to where Hera normally sat and stood in the shadow of it as a series of thirteen flashes filled the room and the various Olympians appeared along with an understandingly bitter Hades. Looking around the room, I could already see the results of my actions in the Greek and Roman camps as all of the gods' forms flickered slightly before they sat in their thrones and visibly sighed in relief as they were able to focus on a single aspect.

Without really thinking about it, I found my gaze moving over to where Artemis sat. She was still in the older form I had seen her in more recently, and sat completely still on her throne, staring forward coldly as Zeus made the usual greetings.

Weirdly, despite her not moving a muscle, and seeming her usual disinterested self, I could tell it was just an act. Taking a deep breath, I realised it had to do with the smell filling the air and making me want to turn into my wolf form; I could smell her fear. It smelled like sweat and something salty, and while a similar odor was wafting off the other gods, making my mouth water, something about the more earthy tones coming off the Goddess of the Hunt made me want to turn into my wolf form and attack something.

"Our first, and most pressing, issue is the growing tensions between the Greek and Roman camps," Zeus announced.

"How did they even come to learn of each other?" Apollo asked.

"One of the brats was kidnapped as he was leaving," Dionysus replied, looking as if he had smelled something gross. "Little Nigel must have put up a bit of a fight, though, because his attackers left some stuff behind. In particular, an imperial gold gladius. Didn't take that Annie Bell girl long to piece things together, and have Chiron confirm it."

"Why take a single demigod, though?" Athena asked.

" _Nico_ , is my son," Hades said pointedly, glaring at Dionysus. "As well as one of, if not the most powerful demigod on the Greek side. It could have been done in an effort to demoralize them."

"But why?" Athena asked. "What does either side gain from going to war with the other."

"Might have something to do with their missing Praetor," Hermes replied.

" _What?_ " Zeus demanded, shifting aspects as he glared at Hermes. "Why was I not told of this?"

"Because it just happened recently," Hermes replied, cowering slightly in his seat. "O-on top of that, someone stole their remaining standards."

"The Romans won't accept such an insult," Poseidon added. "It would make sense that they would immediately think that it was perpetrated by the Greeks. The only question is how they learned of the Greeks in the first place."

"Who cares," Ares growled. "I say let them fight."

"Of course you would," Artemis shot back. "Some of us, though, still remember the last time our two aspects fought each other."

"Seeing as the Greeks clearly didn't do anything untoward against the Romans, I say we simply order them to return the son of Hades and send them on a quest to find their standards elsewhere," Athena suggested coolly.

"How can we be sure?" Apollo countered. "It was your daughter that linked the evidence to the Romans, and the hatred between the two sides has only grown since _your_ parthenos was stolen."

"You accuse me of starting this?" Athena demanded angrily.

Apollo lifted his hands and looked to the side, a smirk on his face. "I'm just saying, you aren't exactly unbiased."

I groaned quietly to myself as the arguments went on and on for another two hours before Hera finally cut in, the rest of the council silencing themselves reluctantly in order to let their queen speak. "What if neither side is responsible?"

"What do you mean?" Poseidon asked.

"Think about it," Hera said condescendingly. "Similar incidents happen in both camps around the same time. Incidents that happen to point them at each other with little to no effort."

"But who would do such a thing?" Athena asked. "And why?"

"Maybe for the same reason neither camp has seen any new demigods in years?" She suggested.

"You think that weird wolf thing is behind this?" Aphrodite asked.

"It's a possibility," Athena conceded.

"Artemis," Zeus said, turning to her, making her stiffen slightly. "You were tasked with hunting the mutt."

"I. . . have yet to track it down," Artemis lied, and I winced as I noticed Apollo shift in his seat. I saw what she was trying to do by using half-truths to not be called out by her brother, but she must have forgotten about trying to follow me from her chariot.

"And why not?" Zeus demanded.

"It has yet to reveal itself long enough for me to find a trail," she admitted, shifting uncomfortably.

"Do you think this beast could be connected to our current problem?" He asked.

"No," Artemis replied, and Apollo shifted even more.

"You're lying," he said, and Artemis turned to stare at him, the first cracks starting to appear in her mask of calmness.

"What?" She asked, the smell of her fear becoming overpowering.

"You're lying about that wolf," he said.

"I am not!" She exclaimed only to shrink as the room darkened and Zeus glared at her.

"Artemis, I will ask you once more," he said calmly as his power radiated from his throne. "What do you know about this wolf?"

"Nothing!" She shouted, looking at her brother in desperation, only to collapse back in her seat as he shook his head, betrayal shining in her eyes.

"So, you have seen this beast," Zeus surmised.

"No, Father, I swear -"

"Silence!" He shouted. "I have asked if you considered it a threat to us, and you lied. The only reason I can see for doing so would be if you were working with it."

"What?!" Artemis shouted. "No!"

"Seize her," he ordered as she shot out of her seat, only for Apollo, Hermes, and Ares to gang up on her. She put up a decent fight, using her hunting knives to fend off Hermes and Ares, but Apollo managed to pin her with an arrow through the sleeve of her parka. This gave the other two the opening they needed to grab her and constrict her with celestial bronze chains provided by Hephaestus.

"Leave us," Zeus ordered. There was something about the way he spoke that made even me want to turn around and leave immediately, but I clenched my teeth and forced myself to stay still as Zeus rose to his feet and walked over to the bound form of his daughter.

"Father, please," Artemis begged, and I had to force myself to stay still again, only this time it was to stop from running towards the two gods instead of away.

"You were one of my favourite daughters," Zeus said somberly. "Perhaps that's why I never saw this coming."

"Father, I am loyal to Olympus, I swear!"

"Enough!" Zeus shouted. "Tell me everything you know about this mongrel's plans and I will be lenient in my punishment."

"I don't know anything!" Artemis shouted, only to scream as Zeus raised his hand. I watched in horror as lightning arced up and down her body, lighting the room as the hearth died down. The smell of burning filled the air before he lowered his hand and kneeled down to raise her by the chin.

"Tell me what you know!"

"I d-don't know an-anyth-thing," Artemis sobbed, her body twitching from what had to be a few million volts running through it. Her screams pierced my eardrums as Zeus channeled more electricity through her, holding her by the chin the whole time. The torture continued for too long. Every second, I wanted more and more to step in and help her, but I had already messed with things enough by forcing Prometheus to help me rework our plan so I could help her, the least I could do is follow it properly. I watched helplessly as Artemis thrashed around in pain as Zeus tortured her for answers she didn't have. Eventually, I was surprised to see the pendant I gave her slip out of her parka, and I felt a ball of fear coil up in my chest as Zeus noticed it too.

"So, you really are one of them," he said quietly. "It's clear that pain isn't going to convince you to return to the right side, so I'll have to try something else."

"W-w-what?" Artemis croaked and my eyes widened.

"If pain won't change your mind," he said reaching for her parka. "Maybe pleasure will."

"No," Artemis muttered, the smell of her fear overpowering me. "No! Please! My vow!"

"Was made to me," Zeus finished, ripping the parka open with a single motion. "I had hoped I would eventually be able to win you over, but it seems I will just have to show you what you've been missing out on."

I was moving before I even realised it and changed mid jump, clamping my jaws around Zeus' leg and yanking him off his feet as I used a slight breeze to drag Artemis' knives towards me. I quickly changed back to human form and grabbed the knives, hurling them at Zeus and stabbing through the flesh of his biceps and pinning him to the ground. The king of the gods screamed in pain before his eyes widened and it turned into one of anger as he recognized me.

"YOU!" He bellowed, and I returned his glare as I struggled to contain my anger.

Shifting back into my wolf form, I leaned down and nipped the back of Artemis' neck before standing with a claw held over her as I glared at Zeus. "I, the Alpha and Leader of The Lost, declare war on you, Zeus, Son of Kronos. I will tear down your world brick by brick and see you cast down before me. As spoils of this first battle, I claim Agrotera, the Huntress, as my own." Without another word, I leaned down and gently picked Agrotera by her chain before sprinting out of the throne room, leaving Zeus behind to scream impotently while I made use of Zephyros' blessing to quickly jump off Olympus and sprint through the air towards my home.

*(OoO)*

Agrotera was understandably quiet as I gradually lowered our altitude while maintaining a breakneck pace in the direction of my island home. I stopped once I had made it out of the state and put her down gently in a clearing in some woods a few miles away from the highway and any other civilization, watching as her silver gaze stared off into the distance while I leaned down and bit through the chains binding her arms. She barely reacted as my teeth came within inches of her flesh, and continued staring into the distance as I shifted back into my human form and pulled some bandages and a square of ambrosia out of one of the pockets on my duster.

"Your neck is still bleeding," I said, and, noticing how she flinched now that I took the form of a man, made sure to stay in Agrotera's line of sight as I removed the duster, placed it on the ground with the ambrosia and bandages on top, put on the shorts and walked back several feet. "These will help stop it," I added, shifting back into my smallest wolf form - which was still about four feet at the shoulder, but it was the best I could do - and laying on the ground. I closed my eyes and waited, the same as I did whenever I was helping a demigod or mortal who had been through a particularly difficult life until I felt the shift in the air and ground beneath me and the nearly non-existent sound of her moving closer and closer to the coat. I made sure to keep my breathing even and make no sudden movements as I listened to her wolf down the ambrosia before struggling to wrap the bandages around herself.

"Would you like some help?" I asked carefully, already knowing the kind of response I would get.

"I'm fine!" Agrotera snapped predictably, and I opened my eyes to look at her for a moment, shoving down the sarcastic retort on the tip of my tongue as I watched her struggle to hold down her emotions in front of me.

"All right," I said instead, closing my eyes while directing my senses to our surroundings. After several minutes of struggling, it seemed that she had given up and just let the ambrosia do most of the work. I could hear her trying to contain her emotions, and stood up, sniffing the air. "It's getting late, and I need to hunt. I know you're this badass goddess who doesn't need any protection, but could you do me a favour and wear my coat?" I tilted my head towards the coat, ignoring the glare she gave me as I turned around and ran into the forest.

After about an hour, I had satisfied my urges, and also caught a pretty big deer. I dragged it back to where I had left Agrotera, and found that she had left. Luckily, she seemed to have taken my duster, and I quickly tracked her sent through the woods to the edge of a little stream, where she sat huddled against a tree, the coat thrown on the ground at her feet as she curled up and shook, sobbing.

Dropping my catch, I padded over to her and picked the coat up in my teeth before dropping it over her shoulders and lying down, facing away from her. I made sure to stay close, but avoided any contact, as I listened to her cry.

"Your hunters are safe on my island," I said after about twenty minutes, once her sobbing had calmed down slightly.

"What did you do to them?" She demanded, and I cracked an eye open as she tried to summon a weapon, only for nothing to happen.

"Nothing, whatsoever," I replied. "They're waiting there for you to join them, and are being kept in a separate part of the island from my people, who have been warned against approaching them unless approached first or given express permission. I swear on the Styx."

"Why did you take them in the first place?" Her shoulders had lowered somewhat in relief, but her glare was still hard and sharp. She looked somewhat different from when she was Artemis; her hair was shorter, reaching just past her shoulders, as well as darker, and she looked to be about nineteen or twenty, as opposed to her usual preteen appearance, but her expression was the same as ever, and I remember why she had scared thirteen-year-old me so much when I first met her on the quest to rescue Nico and Bianca.

"Because, I thought that Zeus would target them once he realised that torture wouldn't work on someone like you, even if you could answer his questions."

"Because _you_ forced me to keep your secrets against my will!" She hissed angrily. "Now I've probably been cast out from Olympus and had my godhood taken away!"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, boo hoo. I couldn't care less for your status as a god, nor do I care that you blame me for repeatedly choosing not to take the harmless potion to erase your memory, despite having been warned more than once what would happen."

"Then why do anything?!" She screamed. "Why help me? Why stop him then, and not when he was torturing me with enough electricity to power the entire country for a year?!"

"Don't mistake me waiting to step in with condoning anything that monster does in his desperate effort to keep his seat on the throne," I snarled, standing up and staring down at her. "I've been spending the last half of a decade piecing together the countless people that he and the rest of you Olympians have used and abused over the years. So, when your own stubbornness and stupidity lands you on the business end of the Master Bolt, don't expect me to rush in and save you after having already tried before. The only reason I took the Hunters was because I wasn't about to let them suffer as well for you thinking you know better than everyone and refusing to see things from a different perspective. I tried to help you, and you insulted and rejected because you automatically assume that I'm an arrogant jerk because you don't like when someone who happened to be born with a penis talks to you without groveling on the ground in fear."

Her eyes widened as if I'd smacked her and I huffed as I layed back down and turned my head away from her. The two of us sat in silence, and I was nearly asleep when I heard her talking softly. "Then why _did_ you help me when you did?"

"Because," I explained. "You were one of the toughest people I knew. It would suck, but you could deal with torture for as long as you needed to. What he was about to do, though, crosses a line. I'd have a hard time wishing that on most of my enemies, let alone someone who did nothing to deserve it."

Agrotera didn't say anything else, but I did eventually hear her shuffling around, and when I opened my eyes later in the night, I found her curled up against the tree, properly wearing my duster and holding it close as she wrapped it tightly around herself.

 **A/N: Sorry for taking so long. Real life is hectic, and I haven't had much of a chance to write. Anyway, hopefully you all. . . not necessarily enjoyed this chapter, as it wasn't supposed to be fun, but at least appreciated it. I'm trying to take a different approach when doing the Percy/Artemis relationship, as I don't want her to just see him as 'the only good male' so much as actually work through her prejudice and genuinely form a deep connection with him. Also, the Agrotera thing will be addressed later, but suffice to say where Artemis/Diana is Goddess of the Hunt, Moon and a bunch of other stuff, Agrotera isn't even necessarily a Goddess, so much as The Huntress, something that I'm hoping will become more important later on down the road.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading, and tell me what you think in the reviews. Until next time!**


	6. Chapter 6

My sleep that night was troubled, to say the least, as memories of what my father had done, and was prepared to do to me replayed in my mind's eye over and over. When I did wake, it was to the smell of a seasalt and petrichor, while smoke and the scent of cooking meat wafted over on a soft breeze. Opening my eyes, I found myself curled up against the same tree I had retreated to the night before. Maybe ten feet from where I lay was a smile fire with the remains of a deer roasting over it on a spit. My stomach growled, and I felt my mouth water as I took another deep breath, but I paused and cast a glance towards the mass of fur laying down just out of reach, a soft rumbling filling the air with every breath it took.

"Eat," Percy ordered. It still surprised me that this was the same boy I had met in a snowy field outside a middle school dance, who had to force himself not to cower in fear from my presence alone.

I narrowed my eyes at his gruff tone, and shifted before realising I was still wrapped in the warm confines of his ever-present duster. My cheeks heated at the way I clutched the coat to my chest, which, upon closer inspection through the Mist, made my eyes widen as shock replaced the embarrassment I had been feeling. Draped over me, shimmering in the pale light of the approaching dawn, was the golden fur of the Nemean Lion. It's magic filled me with warmth as I looked between it and the man who had given it to me the night before.

"How did you manage to get this?" I demanded, pushing myself to my feet and walking over to join him as he shifted back into a human and grabbed it, reaching inside the coat's pockets and pulling out a change of clothes while I averted my gaze from his naked body.

"How do you think?" He asked sarcastically.

"No one has defeated the Nemean Lion since the time of Heracles," I said, scowling at his tone and lack of modesty.

"Atlas sent it to kill us when you were abducted," Percy replied, slicing off a chunk of deer and throwing it into flames. "Was significantly easier the second time around."

"My patience for your boasting is growing thin, boy," I hissed.

"Fascinating," Percy grumbled, looking up at the sky and sighing. "Hurry up and eat, we have to be moving before the sun rises."

"You won't be able to evade my brother forever," I replied, annoyed by his nonplussed attitude.

"It's worked so far, now eat, I'm going to go make sure the coast is clear."

Tearing off a slice of the deer, I dug into it with a reluctant scowl as I watched Percy march off to secure the perimeter. Though not as satisfying as ambrosia and nectar, the meat was still delicious and fell apart in my mouth as I tried to figure out what my next move was.

The gentle breeze I had started to associate with his presence made me jerk my head up from the glowing embers of the fire to see him looming over, seemingly appearing out of nowhere and making me curse my own lack of awareness. He was now dressed in a pair of jeans and a thin, white T-shirt that clung to his frame underneath a pair of leather straps crossing his chest and connecting to a belt around his waist. Attached to the straps behind his broad shoulders were two sets of five throwing knives, with another two sets of three on either side of his narrow waist. While thankful that he was now clothed, the feeling I had of being too close to a dangerous predator had now been replaced with that of a battle-hardened warrior the likes of which I hadn't seen in centuries.

"Here," he said, his deep voice rumbling slightly as he held his hand out to me, offering me my trusty pair of hunting knives hilt-first.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Giving you your knives back," he answered, his brow furrowed in slight confusion.

"I mean, why are you giving them to me? You _claimed_ me as a spoil of battle." I spat the words out with as much disgust and vitriol as I could, relishing in the way he flinched only slightly before his composure returned. "Why would you give me weapons?"

"Would you rather I named you my accomplice?" Percy asked, giving me pause as I thought about the implications of what he said. "As for why I would return your weapons: the fact that they belong to you should be reason enough." Without another word, he flipped the knives in hands and casually tossed them at the ground in front of me, impaling them halfway to the hilt in the dirt before reaching down and snatching his duster out of my arms. "Now come on, we only have a couple of hours before the sun rises." Without looking back, he kicked some dirt on the smoldering embers, sliced up and wrapped the remains of the dear that were still edible before burying the rest and started walking due West.

Quickly grabbing my knives, I dashed after him, having to hurry slightly to keep up with his long legs as he walked confidently through the woods.

"Do you always trust others so easily?" I probed as we approached a nearby highway.

"I trust you want to see your hunters," he replied.

I scowled as he had a point. So long as he was keeping my hunters on that island with Harpocrates there was no way I would be able to find them without him.

"I could simply force you to take me to them," I countered. To my growing annoyance, the boy had the gall to _scoff_ and chuckle without even looking my way.

"Good luck with that."

Rage filling me, I snapped my fingers as I focussed the magic at my command on him. A few hours as a jackalope should teach this arrogant boy a lesson. To my satisfaction, he disappeared in a flash of light, however when the light died, my glee turned to confusion as there was no jackalope in his place. In fact, the spot where Percy had been walking was completely empty and I had barely taken a step forward to inspect what had happened when I felt the prick of a blade on the back of my neck and the smell of sea salt and beach trees.

"If that didn't work before, what made you think it would now?" He asked, his voice a rumbling growl that made me shiver as I became increasingly aware of how close he was standing to me. "That kind of reaction is exactly why things need to change. Now if you're done, come on, we have a lot of ground to cover before the sun rises."

Quick as a breeze, he was in front of me once more, the knife back in its sheath as he continued to walk through the woods. Taking a deep breath to stifle the strange feeling that surged through my body, I followed him in silence while reaching up to rub my hand over the spot on the back of my neck where I could still feel the lingering ache of where he bit me the night before. After more than an hour of walking, the two of us came upon a small campsite with an RV parked next to a small fire. Seated at the fire was a young woman wrapped in a large coat and toque as rubbing her hands together before yawning loudly, causing Percy to chuckle.

"Alpha!" The girl yelped, shooting to her feet as Percy and I walked out of the trees. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Janice," Percy replied softly, a warm smile on his face that the girl returned before she noticed me standing behind him. "This is Agrotera," he explained as he stepped aside, and I felt my aspects change.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Milady," the young woman said with a wide grin and a bow. "I can't wait until I'm old enough to join you and the other Hunters!"

"You're a mortal," I said without thinking. "How do you know of the Hunt?"

"Every female member of the Lost is told about the Hunt," Percy replied before turning back to address Janice. "How have things been?"

"You mean since you checked with us the day before yesterday?" Janice teased, and I watched in amazement as the large predatory man blushed and smiled sheepishly. "Other than a couple hellhounds, the guys on the night shift dealt with, it's been pretty peaceful. You would almost think we didn't just declare war on the gods yesterday."

"Tell me, Janice," I demanded, "you agree with this campaign against the gods themselves?"

To my surprise, any respect in Janice's expression as she turned to me vanished as she scowled and nodded her head. "Of course I do. We all do."

"That's enough, Janice," Percy said calmly, placing a hand on the young woman's shoulder. "We need you to guide us home before the sun rises and Apollo finds us."

Janice glared for a second longer before taking a deep breath and calming herself before nodding to him. "Just need to grab Derek so he can cover my shift."

Percy nodded and we watched her march back towards the RV, shouldering a large crossbow that had been laying next to where she was sitting before we arrived. Opening the door, I heard her speak with someone before a tired-looking young man trudged out behind her, a sword on one side of his waist and a small pouch on the other. Percy smiled and waved at him, only to receive a single finger in reply, making him chuckle. To my surprise, this boy was also a mortal, though the silver wolf head dangling from his neck told me he too was a member of this strange cult Percy led.

"Thanks for this, Derek," Percy said, an apologetic smile on his face.

"It's not like you forced any of us to take these jobs," Derek grunted waving him off with a yawn. "But you owe me a coffee."

Percy chuckled - a deep rolling sound, like waves hitting the shore- and nodded before turning back to Janice who had now joined them.

"Ready?" She asked. Percy nodded and she led them several yards away from the small campground towards a massive oak tree with a knotted hole right in the middle, large enough for a person to walk through if they stooped slightly. Janice reached into the hole and seemed to feel around for something before a soft blue light filled the space inside the trunk and a low rumbling shook the ground beneath us. Once it stopped, she stepped into the hole and vanished before Percy and I followed behind and I froze.

Inside the hole was a tunnel that led deep into the earth before being obscured by darkness. The walls were made of compressed dirt and stone and I felt my breath catch as I realized that we would be going under there.

"Come on," Percy said, not looking back to see my breathing get heavier as a dull thudding rang in my ears. I reluctantly followed him into the tunnel and tried to listen as he spoke with Janice, but their voices were distant and muffled. Suddenly, I was back in Mount Orthys, struggling under the impossible weight of the sky as it pressed down on me with the force of a planet. My breath caught in my throat, and arctic sweat creeped down my neck as I relived the sheer helplessness of being pinned between the Earth and the Sky while Atlas gloated over me.

Before I knew it, I was on the ground, the walls around me closing in as they threatened to crush me once more, and I fought desperately to fill my lungs with air. For one moment, I was convinced that I would be buried here, never to taste the fresh air again. Dirt filling my lungs for eternity. I couldn't tell where I was anymore, as I could barely register the lights and sounds around me before something large and rough took my hand and I looked up to see a pair of sea-green eyes staring into mine. The eyes closed momentarily, and I felt something stir within me in ancient recognition before they opened once more, and a gentle breeze carrying the scent of sea salt and beach trees returned me to the present. I looked into Percy's face and saw his mouth move as he said something to me while his hand moved my own over his chest while his other one moved around to the back of my neck, gently kneading the same spot on the back of my neck that he had bitten when he took me from my father.

In time, I found my breath matching his, as I felt his chest expand with every inhale. His hand moved from its place at the back of my neck to the side where his rough, calloused fingertips brushed against my jugular and I shivered as he caressed my skin, the feeling I had the first time we met in wolf-form coursed through me, telling me to submit, and I flinched, smacking his hand away from me.

"Keep your hands to yourself, _boy_ ," I hissed, scrambling to my feet, ignoring the way Janice held her crossbow at the ready as she regarded me warily before Percy stepped between the two of us and gently put a hand on her weapon, lowering it.

"I'm sorry," he said, and I was surprised to find he was completely sincere. "We should keep moving."

 **A/N: So I don't really have an excuse for why this has taken so long to update other than the fact that I just didn't have the necessary inspiration to continue. But for some reason, my brain has overflowing with ideas for this story in particular, so I guess I'm back at it again. Anyway, tell me what you think, and thanks for reading!**


	7. Chapter 7

To say Artemis' reaction when we entered the Labyrinth was surprising would be an understatement. That being said, there were plenty of people in the Lost who were haunted by something, and it wasn't my first time dealing with someone suffering from a panic attack. It also made a morbid kind of sense that, of all the Olympians, the Goddess of the Hunt and a daughter of Zeus would be the one with claustrophobia. What did surprise me, though, was how urgently I felt the need to help her. Before I knew what I was doing, I was already kneeling in front of me as I held one of her hands against my chest, instructing her to mimic my breathing, while my other went to the back of her neck, where I gently kneaded the muscles there to try and help relax. For some reason, the small bumps on the back of her neck, where I had bitten her the night before, felt particularly good under the pads of my fingers, and I almost lost myself in the action as she gradually calmed down and looked me in the eye. Her silver eyes were glassy with unshed tears and, despite my distaste for her and the other Olympians, I couldn't help but feel a tinge of empathy. I knew what it felt like to be at the mercy of the ghosts in my head - the feeling of being absolutely helpless as you lose control of yourself. It was thanks to that empathy that I was able to maintain my composure when I went to check her pulse, and her frigid attitude snapped back as she slapped my hand away. Once again, I wasn't surprised that she would act like that, if the other people I knew who had gone through something similar - myself included - didn't react well to being seen so vulnerable, than a goddess like Artemis would definitely hate it.

After making sure that Janice wouldn't try and put a bolt through her heart, the three of us continued on our way, following her through the winding and twisting tunnels.

"Where are we, anyway?" Artemis asked, her voice still rough and scratchy, after nearly half an hour of walking.

"The Labyrinth," I replied.

"What? I thought it was destroyed years ago."

I shrugged. "I guess it reformed since then."

"So this is how you evaded me and Apollo for so long?"

I nodded and turned to Janice with a grin. "Well, not me, personally. I still need someone with Clear Sight to lead me through."

"Jeremy still tells the story about how you ended up in the Bahamas when you and he got separated," Janice teased, making me groan as my cheeks flushed.

"It's a giant, magical maze filled with death traps!" I snapped defensively. "Why am I the only one who gets grief for getting lost?"

"Same reason we all laugh any time you get near the archery range," Janice.

"Hey, I'm not _that_ bad of a shot!" I countered. "I once put an arrow through all three of Geryon's chests at once, you know."

Artemis scoffed, and I turned to her with a raised eyebrow.

"And you haven't made one since!" Janice added, drawing my attention back to the conversation at hand. "Granted, you're pretty good with those knives of yours, but there's a reason so many of us ladies go and join Lady Artemis when we get old enough."

"Old enough?" Artemis asked. "What do you mean? My hunt accepts maidens of all ages."

"The Lost don't go on quests until they reach the age of fifteen, or have passed certain tests in their training if they were older when they joined," I explained. "Any girl is free to join the Hunt, but they have to wait until they are at least sixteen and have gone on one expidition beforehand."

"You dare restrict maidens from joining my hunt, _boy_?" Artemis hissed and I rolled my eyes, putting a hand up to calm Janice when she tensed and moved her finger back to the trigger of her crossbow.

"For good reason," Janice retorted.

"And what reason may that be, human?" Artemis demanded, before I stepped between the two of them.

"You can hate me for any of the thousands of reasons I'm sure you have," I growled staring down at her, unable to look away from her shining silver eyes. "But the Lost are to be treated with respect, are we clear?"

Artemis scowled and we stood there, nose to nose in silence for several seconds before she scoffed and stepped away. Taking a deep breath and trying to ignore the smell of pine trees and campfire smoke, we continued through the tunnels, following Janice the whole time.

"So, where are you headed after we get home?" She asked, trying to break the awkward silence that had filled the tunnels.

I sighed, already tired at the reminder of the nearly endless list of things that would need doing once I got back to our island home. "Well, once I've made sure no is suffering from silver arrows in places arrows should never be, I'll have to meet with the other leaders, see where they all stand with their individual projects before we plan our next move."

"There's going to be an increase in monsters, isn't there?" Janice asked, her voice low.

I nodded sadly and put my hand on her shoulder. "You're not the same girl as when we met. You're much stronger, and you're not alone anymore. Remember that."

Janice smiled and ducked her head. "Yes, Alpha."

The two of us continued to chat as we made our way through the winding tunnels, before, after maybe another fifteen minutes of walking, we came upon the familiar staircase that I knew led up to the entrance inside the meeting room on the island. Janice pressed a hand on the small Delta symbol near the top of the staircase, and the wall in front of us opened to reveal Reyna, Edward, and Calypso standing ready with their weapons drawn until I stepped out and they sagged in relief for a moment before they caught sight of the goddess behind me and tensed up once again.

"It's alright," I told them, making sure to stand between them and Artemis.

"Welcome back," Edward said, sheathing his celestial bronze saber while keeping a cautious eye on Artemis.

"Good to be back," I replied.

"I take it everything went according to plan?" Calypso asked.

"Calypso?" Artemis interrupted.

"Hello, Artemis, it's nice to formally meet you," Calypso said as she gave her a warm smile, only to frown as Artemis scowled in return.

"You should still be imprisoned on Ogygia. How did you escape?"

"Percy saved me," Calypso replied, and I smiled and sent her a wink.

"Mayhaps we could leave the reminiscin' for another time?" Edward asked. "How did things go on Olympus?"

"Well, as you can see, I did have step in before Zeus went too far," I explained, jerking my head in Artemis' direction. "Other than that, I made sure to conceal my face during the declaration, so we should have the element of surprise for a little while still. How have things been with our guests?"

"The Hunters have mostly kept to themselves, with the exception of the handful of girls that are from here. They've helped with maintaining the peace."

"And have their been any issues?"

"Everyone knows that their lieutenant is a friend of yours," Calypso replied. "They've made sure to try and keep to themselves."

"Great," I concluded, nodding. "In that case, I'm gonna take Agrotera to her hunters, once they're all settled and I've convinced Thalia not to electrocute me into the next century, I'd like to see where we are."

"That's fine," Calypso replied. "However, Edward and I are actually about to be leaving today. We just wanted to wait until you returned."

"Callie, you don't need my permission to leave," I said, reaching out and placing my hand on her shoulder as she fidgeted in place. "You know that."

"I know," Calypso replied. I could see she was struggling with something as she avoided meeting my gaze when Edward stepped in.

"It was my idea," he declared, tossing a glance at Calypso. "Me men're getting a mite restless, and the last time we were on an island with someone who weren't a fan of males, we ended up spending too a few centuries as guinea pigs. Jus' wanted ter wait fer yeh to get back in case you had assignments for us."

I nodded, understanding that Calypso was still occasionally uncomfortable opening herself up to me, and accepted Edward's explanation while Artemis snickered behind me.

"I knew there was a reason I liked Circe," she said, smirking at Edward's annoyed expression until I swatted her over the head. "Did you just…"

"Smack you for being rude?" I finished. "Yeah, I did." Without another word, I spun on my heel and started marching down the halls, not looking back to see if she was following me or not.

"H-how… How dare you?!" Artemis exclaimed, running after me. "I am an Olympian!"

"Really?" I asked sarcastically. "I hadn't noticed."

The two of us stepped outside, and I took a deep breath, happy to be home once again. The volcanic rock was warm and soft beneath my bare feet, and I could see the small village the Lost was building from my position on the hilltop. There wasn't much, just a handful of small huts as well as a little forge and armory, but I could see that work was coming along on various storehouses, while Prometheus was standing with a handful of people going over the plans for us to install indoor plumbing, rather than the outhouses and public baths that we had at the moment. Outside the little village, near the edge of the growing forest that was encroaching on the rest of the island were a handful of silver tents around a small campfire. There was a small archery range where I counted half a dozen hunters practicing just behind the tents while two more stood watching the two sentries I had assigned to help with keeping the peace between the Hunters and the Lost.

"Milady!" I heard a familiar voice shout as Artemis and I approached, and I watched as one of my oldest friends sprinted towards us. Thanks to Artemis' blessing, Thalia looked the same as the last time I saw her, still perpetually living in the body of a fifteen year old. Because of this, she was much shorter than me now, and as I watched her skid to a halt and bow in front of Artemis, I couldn't help but wonder how else I had changed in the last five years.

"Hello, Thalia," Artemis said, her cool demeanor once more firmly in place. "I trust you've taken care of the girls in my absence?" While Thalia informed Artemis about how my people, with some convenient potions courtesy of Hecate, abducted the entire hunt - their wolves included - while she was attending the Council meeting, I went over to greet my two sentries.

"Jake, Marisol, everything alright?"

"Better now that you're back, Alpha," Marisol, a short yet willowy hispanic girl with hawk-like eyes replied. She was casually leaning on a spear that was several inches taller than her as she watched the Hunters warily, barely sparing me a glance.

"They're loud," Jake grunted. He was probably one of the biggest guys on the island, after me, standing only a few inches shorter than me. He more than made up for it, however, with his massive bulk. At eighteen, the guy looked like one of those crazy people I had seen dragging trucks with a chain over their shoulder.

"Perseus!" Artemis shouted, forcing me to take a deep breath.

"See?" Jake asked, and I couldn't help but snicker as the goddess stomped over to me.

"You abducted my hunters?!" She shouted. Rather than turn around, however, I steeled myself and continued speaking with Jack and Marisol while casually shifting myself between them and the Hunters' bows and arrows.

"Were there any issues?" I asked, continuing to ignore Artemis.

"Ladies Hecate and Lupa explained the situation to the others," Marisol explained. "They've mostly kept to themselves."

"Tried to take a few pot-shots," Jack grumbled, rubbing his arm.

"Any injuries?" I asked. Jack opened his mouth to respond when I felt a shift in the air behind me moments before something hard hit me in the back, making me grunt. Luckily, I was wearing my duster, otherwise the arrow would have probably gone through my side and hit Marisol.

"You listen to Lady Artemis when she speaks to you, boy!" One of the Hunters shouted, and I growled under my breath.

"Go back to the village and see if you can find Lupa," I ordered quietly, continuing to ignore the archers behind me as I watched Jack and Marisol retreat back to the village. I heard the sound of another arrow being fired and whirled around, launching a throwing knife through projectile with enough force to destroy it before impaling itself deep enough through the bow that fired it and severing its string.

"Percy?" Thalia asked as I stomped over to her and Artemis, ignoring the other Hunters who were still following me with their drawn bows.

"Thank your lieutenant, Agrotera," I snarled as the Huntress shifted aspects, looking older than she normally did while simultaneously shrinking away from me.

"For what?" Agrotera asked, recomposing herself.

"I don't normally tolerate people attacking me," I growled lowly. I could feel the wolf in me demanding to be let out, and knew that I was fairly close to changing if I didn't calm myself down. "Especially when people I care for could get hurt as a result. The only thing stopping me from killing your hunter is my friendship with Thalia. Now, thank her." Agrotera and I stared at each other for over a minute in tense silence. Despite this aspect probably being the oldest, physically, she was still nearly a foot shorter than me. I could feel her trying in vain to destroy me with her powers as we approached one another still. We were standing nearly nose to nose and I felt my nostrils flaring as the smell of freshly cut grass, maple syrup, and something else that I couldn't identify filled my lungs. Eventually, she scoffed and turned away, taking a quick step back while turning to Thalia.

"Thank you, Thalia."

"Percy?" Thalia asked once more. "Is that really you?"

Calming myself down, I turned to one of the only people I knew without a doubt was my friend (I mean, it was kind of up in the air now that I had just threatened one of her sisters and visibly disrespected her goddess), and smiled. "Hey Thals, it's good to see you."

"Percy, what's going on here?"

 **A/N: So, things are rather tense at the moment. There are a ton of stories about Percy being super respectful and the nicest guy, but what I think they forget is that he not only has a temper, but also a habit for not really taking people's crap. He's temperamental at the best of times, and I wanted to show him being on equal footing with Artemis, not because she grants it to him, but because he isn't allowing himself to be looked down on anymore. Either way, the two of them have a long way to go before they're sucking each other's faces, that's for sure. Thanks for reading and reviewing,**

 **TTFN**


	8. Chapter 8

It was taking everything I had not to vibrate with the sheer rage I was feeling. Not once in my millennia of life have I ever felt so small. It began when we left that thrice-damned labyrinth, and we were met with that same male who had greeted me when I arrived here for the first time alongside a young woman whose roman heritage caused my aspects to begin flickering painfully. The biggest surprise, however, was Calypso. I had no idea how the daughter of Atlas had managed to escape her eternal prison, but the sight of her, after the surge of unpleasant memories that had surfaced within the Labyrinth, only served to further remind me of my time trapped beneath the sky while Atlas gloated over me, as well as bringing back memories of Zoe, my oldest hunter, which made my chest ache with the pain of loss.

My mind had been a maelstrom, and I was unable to focus as Percy spoke with the others, barely listening until the man alluded to having spent time on Circe's island. While I didn't approve of the daughter of Hecate's methods as a seductress in the past, I did respect the ease with which she handled any males who intruded upon her home. I was barely even aware of having made a comment, too focussed on the relief I felt when Percy once again evoked my oldest aspect, when I felt a rapid blow to the back of my head. While not necessarily painful, it had happened so quickly that it took me a moment to realise what had just happened.

Never before had anyone ever done something like that to me, and to have the gall to accuse me, or any god really, of being rude was unheard of. Before I could even formulate a response, Percy had already turned and left, not even looking back to see if I was following him. Incensed at his disrespect and arrogance, I chased after him, cursing once again as I realised that I was seemingly unable to transform him. I did have my hunting knives, as he had foolishly returned them to me, but, with the pelt of the Nemean Lion covering everything beneath his head, incapacitating him would be a slightly more challenging. On top of that, as much as I hated to admit it, I was not entirely confident that I would be able to take him down without drawing too much attention. While I knew I could eventually gain the upper hand, this _was_ the man who had fought Kronos to a stalemate; even if I did take him down, I would still have to search the island for my hunters and get them out of here unharmed while the rest of the residents, among whom I knew to include at least two gods and a titan.

We eventually left the large building on the hill, overlooking a small village, and I followed him to the small forest growing not far from it, where I finally breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of my hunters in their camp before growling at the two humans keeping watch over them, seemingly ignoring Phoebe and Tania as they watched them in return. Once again, I was surprised to see that one of the pair was completely mortal, but set that aside as Thalia called out to me and sprinted to meet me, swiftly followed by the rest of the girls.

"Thalia," I said, smiling at my half-sister. "I'm glad to see you and the other girls are safe."

"We could say the same to you, Milady," Thalia replied before casting a glance towards where Percy was standing, speaking to his two followers. "What exactly is going on here?"

"I will explain everything later," I said, stifling the chill in my spine as my father's expression moments before he began to rip my clothes off flashed before my mind's eye. "For now, I need to know what has happened in my absence."

"Not long after you left for the Council meeting, we all started to feel drowsy," Thalia explained, unable to look me in the eye. "I thought we were just tired from moving camp, so we all went to bed. When we woke up, we were here, and were greeted by this massive wolf. It told us we were under the care of the Lost, and that we were to remain here until you came to get us. Other than that, and the fact that all of our wolves have run off with that giant one, we haven't really been told anything. The people living here have mostly kept to themselves, with the exception of that giant lug and his friend who have been monitoring us constantly." Thalia smirked, casting a glance towards the large boy and the girl that Percy was still speaking with. "They learned to keep their distance real quick after a couple of stray arrows got too close to them, though."

My anger that had been mounting since having woken up what felt like days before reached a boiling point as I listened to Thalia, and once she was finished, I marched over to Percy, demanding his attention. As if simply to further stoke the fires of my rage, Percy didn't so much as flinch as I approached him, merely snickering at something muttered by boy who could easily have been mistaken for a young cyclops from the neck down. Sensing my ire, and always being quick to put yet another insufferable male in his place, my hunters immediately drew their bows - though I could see that Thalia was hesitating, no doubt having recognised the name I just shouted - and took aim at his exposed back.

Still, Percy continued to ignore me, until, finally, Phoebe seemed to have enough of his insolence, and loosed an arrow. The shot would do nothing more than graze him, but I realized too late that he was still wearing his duster. The Nemean pelt would protect him, and, judging by the trajectory of the arrow, rather than bounce off, it would most likely be diverted off course, potentially hitting one of the two individuals with whom Percy was speaking. Time seemed to slow, and I watched in amazement as Percy shifted his position, taking a single step to the side, placing him directly within the trajectory of the arrow, where it rammed into his back with enough force to draw a quiet grunt from his lips. Even after taking a blow to the back that had the equivalent force of a speeding bullet, Percy continued to ignore us, speaking softly to his subordinates, who nodded and turned to leave just as Tania also loosed an arrow.

Faster than I had ever seen any demigod move, Percy spun around and flung one of the knives he had strapped to his shoulder. The blade rocketed through the air, destroying Tania's arrowhead and slicing the shaft in half before plunging right through the girl's bow deep enough to slice her bowstring, causing her to drop the weapon with a yelp as the tension released and whipped the string across her exposed forearm violently.

When Percy stood over me, I could feel the ground beneath my feet rumbling as the feeling I had the first time we saw each other in wolf-form returned. Once again, my body yearned to back down as a strange tension formed in the pit of my stomach, and once again, my rage at my own reactions allowed me to stand my ground and look into his eyes. When I did, however, what I saw there astounded me.

Deep within the turbulent, sea-green pools, past the momentary rage, was a sadness. It was a terrible sadness and pain that I had never before seen in the eyes of a mortal. It was loneliness, and betrayal, and despair so deep they threatened to drown me in their wake. Beyond that, still, what truly made me avert my gaze, what made me, for the first time I could remember, submit to a male, in the very deepest reaches of his gaze, I saw myself. I saw the scared girl helping her mother birth her brother, I saw the young woman gleefully hunting on her island prison, and saw the cold goddess accepting the domains of a faded being. I saw memories that shouldn't have belonged to me; countless nights watching a man sleep, yearning to be closer to him, growing weaker as I was forgotten by the world, and closing my eyes for the last time as I lay next to my love.

These visions slammed into me, battering me until I was forced to eventually look away, for fear of being torn asunder. By the time I had fully recovered, Thalia and I were following Percy through the village.

"This is the Home of the Lost," he explained.

"The Lost?" Thalia asked.

"It's what we call ourselves. Everyone here is looking for something; whether it's a new home, a fresh start, a purpose, or anything else. If you have felt lost or abandoned, we'll have a place for you for as long as you need it."

"Is that why you've even accepted traitors like Prometheus?" I demanded, annoyed at how composed he seemed.

Percy nodded. "Among others. We don't so much worship the deities that stay here, so much as work with them. Prometheus alone has been a great help with building our infrastructure."

"Percy, he sided with Kronos!" Thalia exclaimed. "How can you just accept that? Don't you remember what his army did?"

"Of course I do!" Percy snapped. Thalia and I froze as power surged from him for a moment before he took a deep breath and calmed himself. "The war is one of the reasons I started building this place."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Do you remember what I asked for as my boon after fighting Kronos, Agrotera?"

"Something to do with demigods," I recalled vaguely. "Why?"

"I asked for three things," he elaborated. "That the unclaimed be claimed before the age of thirteen, and that cabins be built for the minor gods as well. After the war, it took two months for it to become clear that _we_ would have to be the ones who built those cabins. That was fine, we did it together, and slowly built them, one after the other. I made that request with the hope that things would change. That Olympus would pay more attention to us." He shook his head. "I couldn't have been more wrong. The gods held to their promise of claiming demigods, but they didn't so much as lift a finger when their scents got stronger and every monster within miles started gunning for them." My eyes widened as I suddenly understood what he was getting at. Percy Jackson had done something no one had ever before and rejected godhood in an attempt to improve life for demigods everywhere, instead his request was only carried through to the bare minimum, and had most likely signed the death warrant for countless children.

"Not even the others at camp seemed to care," he continued sadly. "They accused me of expecting too much of the gods and that we were supposed to be handling our own problems. As time went on, I started to understand what could lead someone like Luke to be tricked by Kronos. Eventually, I decided that, if camp wasn't going to, I would stop another situation like Luke happening again by finding these demigods myself, and giving them the support and family they deserved."

"What was your third request?" I asked.

"You should know," Percy growled. "You were there."

"The affairs of males don't leave much of an impact on my memory," I replied haughtily.

Percy's expression was nearly apoplectic before he took a deep breath and calmed himself. "I asked for the peaceful titans, like Calypso, be freed. But, of course, I shouldn't have been surprised that the Olympians never followed through with their promises. It wasn't until I decided to go visit her that I learned she was still trapped. I had to break her curse myself."

"Impossible! Calypso's curse could not be broken by the likes of you."

Percy shrugged. "Believe what you want. The fact is she's free now, and I learned you Olympians couldn't be trusted to keep your word. Since then, I've been here, building a haven for people who don't want to be the playthings of Olympus anymore."

We came to a stop just outside a large hut. Percy knocked on the door, and was greeted by a plume of fragrant smoke before a woman in dark robes emerged. Her dark hair was tied high up behind her in a ponytail, and her regal features belied her deific status as she examined us like specimens to be dissected. Her robes were like flowing ink as she bowed mockingly to me.

"Lady Artemis, you grace me with your presence," she said haughtily.

"So, it's not just enemy titans you've sided yourself with," I said, ignoring Hecate as I stared at Percy. To my annoyance, he didn't so much as flinch under my gaze, and he ignored me as he spoke with Hecate.

"How are you, Hecate?" He asked.

"As well as could be expected," the goddess of sorcery replied. "I take it you've come to inquire about your latest request?"

Percy nodded and Hecate led us inside where we found that the hut was quite a bit larger on the inside. It was divided into a large front area, with walls lined with shelves holding all manner of strange things in various jars, where Hecate left us while she went through a thick wooden door to a room shrouded in Mist. In the middle of the area we were waiting was a large cauldron filled with some roiling liquid that was thick as tar and bright orange. Sitting next to the cauldron, stirring it gently, was a girl, no older than sixteen or seventeen, that I could recognise as one of Hecate's daughters.

"Oh, Alpha!" The girl squeaked. "I didn't notice you."

"Please, Jasmine," Percy said softly, "don't get up on my account."

It was surprising to see this man, who had been nothing short of rude and brutish this entire time, act so gently as the girl, Jasmine, ignored him and struggled to her feet regardless. Immediately he rushed around the cauldron to help her, and I was shocked to see how far her stomach ballooned outward, clearly in the last stages of pregnancy.

"Being pregnant is no excuse to be rude when mother and I have guests," Jasmine retorted. "I refuse to be one of those crazy girls who becomes a monster just because I'm carrying around my little parasite."

"Excuse me," Hecate chimed in as she returned from the back, "but that wasn't what you were saying when you were demanding pickles and peanut butter in the middle of the night."

Jasmine blushed and looked down at her stomach, rubbing soft circles over it while Percy chuckled, and even I couldn't help cracking a smile until he sobered and turned back to Hecate.

"Is it done?"

"Considering there's no way to test it," Hecate replied sourly, holding out a vial containing a dull purple fluid. "Yes. Or, at least, as done as it could be."

"Percy," Thalia said softly, drawing our attention. "I can see where you're coming from; us demigods don't exactly have the longest lifespans at the best of times. But, does that really excuse just abandoning everyone and everything we fought for five years ago?"

Percy's eyes softened as he turned to his cousin, and I watched as he gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "I can't answer that," he said, and, in that moment, he seemed much older. He had the gaze of someone who had seen far more than any mortal could have, and I felt something stirring in my chest at the sheer magnitude of pain in his eyes. "Instead I can only tell you to ask yourself what it really was that we were fighting for."

"I don't -" Thalia began, but Percy cut her off.

"Take the time to think on it," he turned his gaze on me and I felt pinned underneath the weight of it, "both of you. In the meantime, I have a proposal for you both."

"A-And what might that be?" I asked, genuinely intrigued.

"One of the jobs of the Lost is to track down and eliminate threats to mortals and demigods that tend to slip under the radar of Olympus," Percy explained. "I'd like to invite the two of you to join me in hunting one."

"And what might we be hunting?" I probed, already feeling the first tingle of excitement at the prospect of a challenge.

Percy smirked and pocketed the potion Hecate had given him. "Medusa."

 **A/N: There we go. Not a lot of progress, but I had a hard time figuring out how to tease what Percy's been up to over the last five years, as well as his motivations, without fully giving it away. He genuinely wants Artemis and the Hunters to join him, but knows that no amount of rhetoric would be able to sway her. Anyway, hopefully you liked it, and let me know what you think. Coming up, we'll be getting back to the action, hopefully.**


	9. Chapter 9

I knew Artemis would agree the moment the question left my lips. Medusa was one of the most dangerous and elusive monsters out there, and the prospect of hunting her down was a challenge I knew she wouldn't be able to refuse. I watched her debate with herself while Thalia looked between the two of us, clearly excited at the prospect as well.

"Why invite me?" Artemis asked. "Surely your little followers can help you."

"Medusa is on a completely different level from anything anyone of the Lost have faced," I explained. "I faced her once when I was twelve, and we only managed to escape her through sheer dumb luck. As for why I'd invite you: Thalia is one of my best friends and one of the best fighters I know, whereas you are the Huntress - if anyone could help me track her down, it would be you."

"And how would we go about doing that when every god on Olympus is looking for us?" Artemis countered, and Thalia looked at her mistress as if she had just been told that Aphrodite would be joining their ranks.

"What do you mean, Milady?"

"Tell her, Perseus," Artemis hissed. "Tell her about how you made an enemy of Zeus and dragged me along for the ride."

I sighed as Thalia turned to me with rage in her eyes and I could smell ozone as her abilities over lightning conveyed her feelings before Hecate stepped between the three of us.

"I believe I can sort out this little misunderstanding," she said before raising her hands and touching both my forehead and Thalia's while chanting softly. Suddenly, with a surge of energy, flashes of my memories played before my eyes, from bringing girls from the Lost to join the Hunt, to saving those same girls from Zeus' interrogation, to stumbling upon Lycaon stalking Artemis as she hunted for me. I watched the brief glimpses of stopping Artemis from hurting anyone, to informing her of the conditions that came with not accepting the memory potion, to her own interrogation at the hands of her father. The entire ordeal lasted no more than a handful of seconds, and I hissed in pain as Hecate retracted her hands, stumbling back until Jasmine caught me and helped me steady myself.

Thalia looked confused for a moment before she walked over and hugged me. "Thank you for saving Milady, Percy," she mumbled. "Not once, but twice."

I smiled and went to wrap my arms around her when a massive jolt of electricity made me yelp and fall back once more. "What was that for?!"

"For being an idiot and a seaweed brain!" Thalia shouted back. "How stupid do you have to be to declare war on Zeus himself?!"

I opened my mouth, by caught myself when I heard Artemis snickering behind us. This seemed to shift Thalia's attention from me to her mistress, as she marched over to her and unleashed a bright blue bolt of electricity, frying the goddess.

"T-Thalia!" Artemis squawked, mostly unharmed aside from her singed clothes and frizzy hair.

"That was for being too arrogant to consider the consequences of refusing Percy's offer. You knew what that Harpocrates guy could do, and you risked the rest of your Hunters trying to beat him." The moment she was finished, she rushed forward, wrapping Artemis in a hug, leaving both me and her with whiplash. "I'm so sorry for what our father did to you, Milady," Thalia cried. "If Percy hadn't I would've attacked him myself."

"So," I asked, confused, "does that mean you approve or disapprove of me attacking your dad?"

Thalia released Artemis and scoffed, rolling her eyes at me. There was a second of awkward silence as we tried to figure out how to go from there before Hecate stepped forward, clearing her throat. "Per your earlier question, Artemis: these will hide your from divine detection," she explained.

"Your father never saw my face," I added. "Everyone thinks that I took Agrotera prisoner, and, when they can't find you or the other Hunters, they'll think I took you as well."

"Why not take the Labyrinth?" A new voice asked, and we turned to see Prometheus standing at the doorway.

"Prometheus?!" Thalia exclaimed. Sighing tiredly, I rubbed the bridge of my nose and waved goodbye to Hecate and Jasmine before leading the other two outside where Prometheus stood with a bundle of plans rolled up under his arm.

"Yes, yes. I sided with Kronos in the war, and now I'm here with Percy's little band, designing sewer systems," Prometheus drawled. "I'm not about to be attacked again, am I?"

"Depends," I deadpanned. "I might deck you."

"What's this about the Labyrinth?" Thalia chimed in. "I thought it was destroyed when Dedalus died."

"It reformed," Prometheus explained. From the corner of my eye I noticed Artemis stiffen once again, and my nose twitched in displeasure as it suddenly felt like someone had poured a bunch of sugar in my nostrils. "The Lost have been sending parties of demigods and Clear-Sighted mortals to map it out for two years now."

"Either way, we won't be using it," I declared, my tone harsher than I meant it to be. "All of our active Clear-Sighted mortals are busy with their own assignments, and Medusa is too dangerous a target for anyone but the best."

"How dangerous could she be?" Thalia inquired "Didn't you kill her when you were twelve or something?"

"And sent her head to the Council as a Joke, if memory serves," Artemis added, the tension in her posture having diminished.

"She was overconfident, and I was lucky," I countered. "Just because she's not like the chimera, or Typhon, doesn't mean she isn't dangerous."

"Much as I hate to admit it, he's right," Artemis continued. "Even without her power to turn those who look at her to stone, Medusa is a cunning, patient hunter. She is strong and quick, with an assortment of venoms at her disposal, and her skills in archery are said to rival those of my best Hunters. There is a reason why Perseus and his namesake are the only two in history to have bested her."

"You've never been assigned to hunt her?" I asked as we walked through the village.

Prometheus snorted. "Doubtful. Aunty Em was never important enough for Olympus."

Artemis looked uncomfortable as she kept her gaze fixed forward. "She never drew our attention."

"Meaning she didn't go rampaging through the streets, wreaking havoc," Prometheus clarified.

"Well we're hunting her now," I said before Artemis could retort. I was all for knocking people off their high horse, but there was a difference between being humbled and humiliated. "Go back to your Hunters and enjoy yourself. We'll leave in a week."

Artemis nodded without a word, and walked back to the Hunters' camp. Thalia made to follow her, but before she did, she spun around and wrapped me up in another hug. I responded in kind, taking note of how much shorter she was than me now.

"It's really good to see you, Percy," she said softly. "I can't say I completely understand what it is your doing here, but you saved Milady, and for that I'm grateful."

"I've missed you Thals," I replied. "I know it doesn't make much sense right now, but you have to know that everything I'm doing…"

"I know," she said, cutting me off. She pulled away and made to follow Artemis, but paused once more to turn back and grinned. "She's grateful too, you know. She won't say it, but you saved her from something she probably fears more than death."

I didn't reply, but smiled and waved to her as she ran after her mistress, and sighed to myself.

"You're an idiot," Prometheus said, breaking me from my thoughts.

"Probably," I agreed.

*(OoO)*

I barely saw Artemis or the other Hunters for the remainder of the week. Most of our island home was covered in a jungle, and they were taking full advantage of the change of scenery, and, more importantly, prey. I was initially worried about them affecting the burgeoning ecosystem we had here, but Artemis was nothing if not a responsible huntress, and they limited their catches so as not to hurt the animal populations.

They still refused to join the rest of the Lost around the large bonfire we had most nights, but, after my little demonstration with a throwing knife that first day, they were no longer outwardly hostile. In fact, by the third day they were there, the handful of girls who had been part of the Hunt, and left with me when Zeus tried to interrogate them, had fearlessly marched into the Hunters' camp and started practicing on their archery range, teasing and challenging the other Hunters. It wasn't much, but I was happy to see some progress, no matter how small, being made.

In the meantime, I spent the week helping out wherever I could with the construction of our little village, as well as meeting with Reyna, Lupa, and others to discuss our next move and listen to reports from our people in both Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter as well as the Clear-Sighted mortals about the state of affairs in the outside world. When I wasn't bogged down with work, I would sometimes change into my wolf form and join the Hunt's wolves in the jungle as Lupa was too busy at the Wolf House to always be around with them.

The night before I was to leave with Artemis and Thalia, I was on one such hunt, prowling through the jungle in an attempt to ease my nerves for the next day. I rarely actually took part in the actual killing of our prey, given that, unless I concentrated hard, I was only slightly shorter at the shoulder when I was a wolf than when I was a man (I could make myself larger as well, but that took just as much work, and was usually not worth the hassle). Instead, I merely took the opportunity to sniff out prey, and run with the pack. Tonight, however, I was surprised when my hunt for a particularly tasty-looking elk was interrupted by another wolf.

Even if I hadn't seen her like this when she first came to the island, it was obvious that it was Artemis standing before me. While still about two feet shorter than me, she was larger than any wolf could possibly be without the aid of magic. Looking her up and down, it was almost like she was my opposite while in this form: I was covered in thick, shaggy fur that was dark enough to help me blend in with the shadows; her fur was a shiny white, like moonlight reflected off fresh snow, and looked so soft that both my wolf and human instincts wanted desperately to rub my face in it. Where I was a mountain of tightly coiled muscles, claws and teeth that were slightly longer and sharper than average, forcing me to have a near permanent snarl, she was the very picture of grace and serenity, her slender form built for speed and agility and her snout sloped to a gentle point as she walked by me to drink from a nearby stream.

"So you're the one with whom my wolves have been gallivanting about," she commented as she raised her head, drops of water falling from her muzzle and catching the moonlight like liquid silver.

"When I have the time," I replied. "Lupa has her own pack. She can't always be here."

"Not to mention the Wolf House is a good place to kidnap stray demigods, right? They come right to her like lambs to the slaughter." I snarled and before I could stop myself, I tackled her. Artemis tried to fight back, but, even with the speed and agility she had, I spent far more time as a wolf than her, and had trained with Lupa on how to take advantage of my own supernatural abilities. We both snarled and barked as we swatted at each other, rolling around on the ground before my strength and experience overcame her and I was standing over her with my mouth around her neck.

My heart was pounding, and I could feel a fire flowing through my veins as I leaned over her, taking deep breaths of her scent. Artemis - Artemis - whimpered - probably from also being a canine and losing to me - as I pressed down slightly, my teeth indenting her skin through her fur and her pulse racing against my tongue, and the sound managed to snap me out of the warm haze I had been in and I released her, lowering my mouth to her ear and growling lowly.

"Insult me all you like, but don't ever disrespect my friends." Stepping off of her, I turned to leave the jungle, stopping to glance back at her one last time. "And you wonder why people would side with the likes of Kronos."

 **A/N: Not quite as long as I would like, but I needed to get through the necessary exposition/catching characters up to speed. That being said, it is remarkably hard to find the right balance between explaining things for the reader and keeping some stuff for later. That's where Artemis, and Thalia in particular, are useful, as they haven't been with Percy for all this time, and can ask the questions I would think the readers are as well. The challenge comes from writing dialogue (among some other things) that explains a bit of what's going on and what happened without giving you a huge exposition dump, as that doesn't feel natural, nor is it, in my opinion, very fun to read. Hopefully the little tussle at the end and the promise that the hunt for Medusa starts will be starting in the next chapter makes up for any boredom you all felt. Anyway, thanks for reading!**

 **TTFN**


	10. Chapter 10

The morning Thalia and I were to leave with Percy, I found myself lacking the usual enthusiasm I felt when preparing to hunt a particularly dangerous prey. Instead, as I did the final checks on my bow and knives before joining Thalia outside my tent, I couldn't help but feel a certain unease. This… trepidation, only increased as we climbed the hill overlooking the small village the Lost had built and met Percy outside the large building into which he and I had emerged from the Labyrinth a week ago.

He said we weren't going to use the Labyrinth, I thought to myself as I remembered the crushing panic I had felt in those tunnels.

In an attempt to distract myself, I turned to examine Percy, who was already waiting for us. He was standing with his back to us, hands deep in the pockets of his duster, looking down at the village as the first people started to wake and go about their days. I watched as he took a deep breath, and a plume of smoke rose into the air.

"Since when do you smoke?" Thalia asked as we approached.

"Since I got a dog's sense of smell," Percy grunted, blowing out another plume as he cracked a smile around the thick cigar sticking from the corner of his mouth and wrapped an arm around my lieutenant's shoulders in greeting. A breeze carried the fumes my way, and, rather than the smell of tobacco that I expected, I found myself inhaling the scent of burning cedar mixed with some sort of herb I couldn't identify. "Hecate made them as a sort of… palate cleanser. Helps dull other scents and let me focus on the one I'm following."

"And I don't suppose you are willing to expand on how you came to acquire a sense of smell equal to a dog's?" I asked.

Percy didn't move a muscle looking at me through the corner of his eyes, and I was reminded of the way he snarled at me the night before. A shiver of annoyance ran down my spine, pooling into an angry warmth in my stomach as he pinned me with his sea-green gaze.

"My best guess is it probably has something to do with that thing I do where I turn into a giant wolf," he replied, his tone sarcastic and showing none of the rage I felt less than twelve hours ago.

Thalia rolled her eyes and punched him in the shoulder, taking his attention off of me and I relaxed slightly. "So, how are we getting out of here?"

Percy smirked and took his other hand out of his pocket. In it was a small pan flute. Raising the instrument to his lips, Percy blew over it, unleashing a clear ringing sound through the air that sounded not unlike the howls of my wolves when they called to each other. Thalia and I looked around, wondering what was going to happen before a sound like the firing of a cannon shattered the quiet morning air, and a massive dark blur bowled into Percy, knocking him to the ground ten feet behind us.

Thalia and I both drew our bows out of instinct as we turned, until we heard Percy laughing underneath the bulk of a truly massive hellhound. I paused, and looked at Thalia in confusion as she relaxed and lowered her bow with a smile on her face.

"Yeah, girl," Percy laughed as his hands came out from underneath the mass of fur to pet scratch the hellhound behind the ears as it drenched his face in slobber. "I missed you too!"

"What is that?" I asked.

"Percy's pet hellhound," Thalia deadpanned as Percy managed to crawl out from underneath the beast, and was sitting on the ground, pressing his forehead against it. "He inherited her from Daedalus."

"That shouldn't be possible," I muttered. "Hellhounds are monsters. All they think about is killing and destruction."

"Well, clearly Mrs. O'Leary never got that memo," Thalia replied.

I opted not to reply as I watched the hellhound - Mrs. O'Leary - fall over with a thud that shook the ground beneath our feet while Percy vigorously rubbed her belly. I knew that monsters could work together, like with Kronos' army, and had seen some of the more bestial ones become loyal to an individual that provided them with ample food, but to see something I had been hunting for millenia acting like a domesticated pet simply made no sense. It was even wearing a massive collar around its neck!

"Alright," Percy declared, pushing himself to his feet, the hellhound right behind him, chewing on what looked like a massive bronze bone. "If you two are ready, Mrs. O'Leary will take us out of here."

"The hellhound is our transportation off this place?!" I cried out. Percy looked at me, a crooked grin on his face that made my stomach churn with anger. How dare that filthy male look so smug?

"It's that or the Labyrinth."

I narrowed my eyes, but that only made his smile grow before softening. He took a step forward, and I felt another tug of recognition in the corner of my mind as I was greeted by the vision of a man, covered in dirt and various scrapes and bruises. I couldn't make out any of the details of his face, but I could see a spear that he carried in one hand, while the other held the skin of some animal. The vision faded and Percy reappeared before me, his hand on my shoulder as he smiled gently.

"It's alright," he said quietly, his voice reverberating like the purr of a massive jungle cat.

I scoffed and shrugged his hand off me, ignoring the lingering warmth from the contact, and rolled my eyes at Thalia, who was leaning on her spear, watching me cautiously approach the hellhound with a smirk on her face. The hellhound looked up from where she was gnawing on her bronze bone and looked at me with her glowing red eyes. To my surprise, rather than the baleful crimson that I had come to associate with the gaze of the beasts, this one's were filled with warmth, and reminded me somewhat of Hestia's. Placing my hand on the beast's head, I couldn't help but smile as she pressed back into my fingers and I started scratching behind her ears.

I looked up when Percy walked over and watched wide-eyed as he hopped onto the hellhound's back. Thalia scrambled up behind him without a second thought, but I still couldn't quite shake the hesitation I was feeling until Percy leaned down and offered his hand to me. I felt that tug in my mind once more, and by the time I had returned to the present, I had apparently accepted his offer and allowed him to hoist me onto the beast's back, where I sat in front of him with his chest pressed against me.

My face heated up as he leaned forward, his arms on either side of me, and patted the hellhound on the side, his breath warming my ear as he spoke. "Okay, girl, whenever you're ready."

The hellhound stood up and I grit my teeth as she barked loudly before breaking into a sprint down the hill, back towards the jungle where my Hunters were camped. We accelerated constantly as we barreled down the hill, and I heard Thalia scream as it looked like we were going to slam right into the trunk of a massive tree, while Percy unleashed a booming laugh. Just before we were turned into paste, darkness surrounded us, and it felt like we our speed increased exponentially. It felt similar to when I teleported myself, but without the protection my divine form provided myself and others. Instead, I was treated to eternal seconds where I felt like the wind at my face would tear me apart, before being ejected back into the physical world with jarring force. Percy, Thalia, and I hopped off the hellhound, and I heard him whispering his thanks to her before a strange whooshing sound told me that the beast had left us behind.

I felt we were back in the United States, and the snow on the ground, reflecting the moonlight still shining overhead from our change of timezones, helped me narrow our location to one of the northern states. The sound of cars speeding past and lack of development made me guess we were near a highway, while the trees in the nearby forest suggested somewhere around New Jersey.

"Here we are," Percy said as he joined us, drawing my attention to the large wooden shack standing before us. It looked like it hadn't been maintained since the Pantheon moved to America, with rotted planks barely hanging onto the frame, and large holes in the roof, through which the winter wind whistled. Hanging above the door was a faded sign reading Aunty Em's Garden Gnome Emporium, and rubble of all shapes and sizes littered the ground underneath the light dusting of snow.

Thalia bent down and grabbed a piece of debris that was near her, and I walked over to join her as she dusted the snow off it only to yelp when it revealed itself to be half of what used to be the head of a statue depicting a woman screaming in terror. She dropped the stone, and my stomach turned as I looked closer and examined the exquisite detail with which it was carved, from the individual strands of hair, to the tears streaming down her face as she wailed in despair.

"This is definitely Medusa's lair," I surmised.

"It used to be," Percy replied, as he pushed open the door. "She hasn't been here since I killed her when I was twelve."

"So, you, Annabeth, and Grover saw all this," Thalia cried waving her hands in the air to indicate our surroundings, "and you thought it would be a good place to get a bite to eat?"

"Firstly: it wasn't in nearly this bad of condition when we came here," Percy argued, counting off his fingers. "Medusa is a lot of things, but her statues are the only company she had, she took extremely good care of them. This was caused by this place's second inhabitants. Second: we had just gotten off a bus where we were attacked by Alecto, disguised as my pre-algebra teacher, and her sisters and were understandably hungry. Third: we were twelve!"

"If Medusa didn't cause this, who were these inhabitants who came after that you claim did?" I asked.

Percy sighed, and the hunch of his shoulders reminded me of how he looked when taking the sky from me. Stepping through the door, he didn't look at us as he spoke, but I could hear the pain in his tone. "This was the hideout for Kronos and his army in the last weeks of the war."

My eyes widened and Thaia stiffened beside me. I was reminded of when Iris showed the Council what had happened in Manhattan while we were busy trying to hold back Typhon. I had felt the loss of my Hunters during the battle, but to see it was another kind of pain entirely. I remember the ten straight minutes where Percy had fought Kronos to a stalemate inside our Throne Room before being distracted by the daughter of Athena and her fight with another boy. While functionally invulnerable, Kronos scythe could still inflict damage upon the soul without damaging the body, and the distraction compounded with his waning stamina would have been Percy's downfall had the other boy and Athena's spawn not distracted the King of the Titans and urged the Castellan boy to wrest control from him long enough to sacrifice his life.

Without a word, Thalia stepped forward and reached up to grab Percy's shoulder, turning him towards her slowly before wrapping her arms around him. Percy returned the embrace, dwarfing Thalia's perpetually pubescent form, but it was clear that she was the one supporting him as he leaned into her offer of comfort silently. It was strange, at first, to see the Hero of Olympus, the man who had been nothing but stoic and smarmy since I saw him a couple weeks ago, crumble beneath the weight of his pain. Most leaders and heroes would stand upon the headquarters of their fallen foes and feel triumph. Pride. However, I then remembered a conversation the Council had not long after Thalia joined the Hunt and it became certain that Percy would be the Child of Prophecy. We all knew the Prophecy, and that our fates would hinge upon a choice made by Percy alone, the question, however, was how we would be able to ensure he made the right one.

The suggestion had been made to offer him the typical boons Olympus gave its chosen heroes: money, fame, power - even godhood. But Athena had rejected them all.

"He is not like other heroes, to be manipulated by those human desires. The flaw that controls Perseus is not pride, or a lust for power, or greed. It is his sense of personal loyalty."

With that in mind, it made sense that Percy would be so heavily affected standing in crypt of memories. Where a general sees the loss of soldiers and acknowledges the death of his men before moving forward, Percy saw it as the death of his friends. His family. I now understood why he would be so protective of those he kept on that island.

But if he is so attached to those he cared for, why leave in the first place?

The question had been haunting me since I first saw him, and still, even now, I felt I was no closer to answering it.

My ruminations were cut short when Percy and Thalia separated, having composed themselves and Percy turned to me. "Do you think you can track Medusa from here?" He asked.

"I can track anything, anywhere," I retorted. "How long has it been since she was here?"

"I came here a month ago and the scent was maybe a week old," Percy explained. "I didn't have the time or resources to follow it at the time, but I made sure to remember it."

I nodded and started to look around the abandoned emporium. With the amount of time since she was here, and the fresh snow, I wouldn't be able to find any tracks, so I would have to find something else to start the trail. "It doesn't take much work from the Mist to hide her," I muttered as I walked around, hopping between destroyed furniture and statues. "And she's clever - doesn't want to attract much attention to herself. That means she's probably traveling by mortal means." There was a small bedroom near the back of the emporium, inside of which I found the clawed-up remains of a bed, a bookshelf and a cluttered writing desk. Posters of famous sculptures from throughout the ages decorated the walls, while what looked like various sketches covered the desk. I started shuffling through them as Percy joined me at the doorway.

"Find anything?"

"Several things," I replied. "Just nothing that can point me in her direction yet."

Percy hummed and stepped into the room, staring at the posters on the wall. "She really liked art, huh?"

"Her concept of art involved murdering people," I said, still searching through the desk.

Percy sighed heavily, and I froze as he turned around behind me. "I'm sorry," he said softly.

"For what?" I asked. Part of me wanted to mention that the list of things he should be apologizing for was rather long. I let that go unspoken, however, as I was curious as to what could bring forth such a genuinely apologetic tone from him.

"Threatening your Hunter like I did when you first arrived on my island. I was reacting on instinct, and couldn't think of anything other than the fact that Marisol and Jack were in danger." He sighed once more, and I almost wanted to turn around. "Nothing about your introduction to the Lost went how I would have liked it to."

"And how would you have liked for me to be introduced?" I asked softly.

"As a friend," Percy replied instantly. "The way you care for your Hunters and actively help them was inspiring to me."

"I see," I murmured, before crying out as a sharp bolt of pain shot through my head. I felt myself flickering between Artemis and Diana before Percy stepped forward and put his hand on my shoulder and I was pulled back into my oldest aspect.

"Milady!" Thalia cried as she rushed into the room. "Are you alright?"

"I - I'm fine," I said softly, my hand still pressed to my temple.

"Your Greek and Roman aspects are clashing," Percy explained, releasing me as he stepped back and Thalia took his place.

"Explain yourself, man," I demanded as I shifted back into Diana.

"Why would that happen if you and I are both Greek?" Thalia asked. Perseus went to answer but I cut him off, my own questions more pressing at the moment.

"Lieutenant, how is it you even know of the difference between the gods' aspects?" I demanded. Thalia looked at me, wide-eyed, and clenched her teeth as she seemingly struggled to come up with an appropriate answer. "Don't forget that I am your commander, Lieutenant. Even if you are a lazy Greek, you should know when I ask a question, I expect an answer."

"No, you aren't," Perseus said. "Thalia is a Hunter of Artemis. She doesn't answer to you, Diana."

I scoffed and rolled my eyes to hide the fact that they were roaming all over him as he stood over me. "Of course a Greek would argue that sort of technicality."

"Are you sure you're not thinking of the Senate?" Perseus countered. My gaze was drawn to his and I was transfixed as he pinned me with burning emeralds.

"You would dare disrespect your superior?" I asked, cursing myself for the slight waver in my tone.

"I don't consider you my superior," Perseus growled, and I knew that I was now speaking to the Alpha. "We came here to do a job, and you're obstructing it." There was the feeling of magic being released and washing over me before I slumped over with a groan, having been forced into my oldest aspect.

"Are you back with us, Agrotera?" Percy asked. I nodded and allowed Thalia to help me to my feet.

"You know Agrotera is just my surname while in this form, right?" I asked. "My name is still Artemis."

"And mine is still Percy," he replied with a smirk. The throbbing in my head eased, and I found myself returning the gesture. "But you insist on calling me Perseus anyway."

"Hey, you two, I think I found something!" Thalia exclaimed as she reached into the drawer I had left open and pulling out what looked like a brochure. She handed it to me, and I read over the words on the front.

Boston Arts Academy: Boston's only public high school for the visual and performing arts.

"I think we found where Medusa is headed," I muttered.

Medusa, one of the most dangerous and powerful monsters from the Old World, was in a school, surrounded by children, and, more importantly, prey.

 **A/N: And there we have it, time for a road trip to Boston! Anyway, I hope you guys liked reading Artemis refusing to acknowledge how hot she thinks Perseus is. I tried to make the difference between her and Diana both obvious, and subtle, as she's still quite cold in her Greek form, but more commanding in her Roman. Also points to anyone who can guess who it was she saw in her vision, either this one or the other. I love reading predictions, and seeing people pick up on my attempts at foreshadowing, so let me know what you think is gonna happen. Anyway, thanks again for reading and reviewing!**

 **TTFN**


	11. Chapter 11

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair as I read over the brochure Thalia had found in Medusa's old lair. Boston was a good three hundred miles from where we were - not exactly a simple move to the other side of town.

"So, we know where she is," Thalia surmised. "Question is: how do we get there?"

"That's easy, I'll just flash us there," Artemis replied.

"Not so fast," I cut in as the three of us made our way out of _Aunty Em's_ and began walking towards the nearby forest. "That pendent Hecate gave you only conceals your presence. Use any of your powers, and we might as well send up a flare telling people where we are."

"Then how do you suggest we make our way to Boston?" Artemis snapped.

"Calm down, would you? It's not that far; maybe five or six hours by car."

"And where are we going to get a car, Seaweed Brain?" Thalia chimed in.

"I never said we would be _using_ a car," I countered. "Even carrying the both of you, I can run fast enough as a wolf to get us there with time to spare."

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Artemis asked. I groaned and looked up to the sky, praying to the few immortals who tolerated me for patience.

"Olympus is looking for a giant wolf," I explained slowly. "How do you think their going to go about doing that?" Artemis opened her mouth to respond, but I didn't give her the chance to answer. "That's right, they'll have Apollo keep watch from the Sun Chariot. Now, dawn is coming soon, so what does that mean?"

"Alright, Percy," Thalia interrupted, stepping between me and Artemis. "We get it."

Taking a deep breath, I recomposed myself. "Sorry. Once night falls, I can have us in Boston in no time. Until then, we're gonna have to make our way on foot."

Artemis and Thalia nodded, and the three of us started making our way North-East, through the woods behind _Aunty Em's._ We all walked in silence for about an hour, making as little noise as possible. Despite that, I still had a feeling like we were being followed, and couldn't keep from constantly scanning my surroundings for some sort of threat.

"So, what can we expect from Medusa?" Thalia eventually asked.

"Apart from the whole turn-you-to-stone-with-her-face thing?" I countered, earning a chuckle from her.

"Yeah, apart from that."

"She has the ability to transform her lower half into that of a massive serpent," Artemis replied. "The scales of which are presumably as hard as any other scaled monster we've faced."

"I'm expecting a non-zero amount of poisonous arrows as well," I added, grimacing.

"You're wearing the pelt of the Nemean Lion," Artemis deadpanned. "What would you be worried about?"

"I dunno whether you've noticed, but this thing doesn't exactly cover everything," I snarked, waving my hand over my exposed face and chest. The pelt might be able to take the shape of a duster, but it was still only able to cover about the same amount as it did in its original form - meaning it was mostly to protect my back and arms. "Besides, I don't like relying on it if I don't have to."

"You won't be able to face her anyway," Artemis countered. "Therefore, you should have nothing to worry about."

"Milady is right, Perce," Thalia added, snickering. "It's not like she's gonna challenge you to an archery competition, or anything. Otherwise, we'd be doomed."

"Hey!" I yelled at her back in indignation. "It's not my fault I'm cursed!"

"Excuses!" She sang back at me.

"Oh, yeah?" I countered. "I can prove it!"

"There's no need for you to prove your dismal skills as a marksman, Perseus," Artemis drawled. "The fact is well-known."

"If my aim is so bad, how did I knock your Hunters arrow out of the air with my throwing knife?" I countered.

"Lucky shot?" Thalia suggested, and I rolled my eyes.

"Name one person with worse luck than me."

"Not untrue."

"Look," I sighed. "Just hand me an arrow, I'll show you what I mean."

Thalia and Artemis both came to a stop, and after a shrug of indifference from her mistress, Thalia took one of her arrows out of her quiver and handed it to me. Grabbing the shaft, I crouched down and drew a quick bullseye in the snow before raising the arrow so its head was pointed straight down at the center of the target. Releasing the shaft, I watched with resignation as the arrow fell straight down before suddenly swerving to the side, flying away from the target and landing on its side a good three feet away.

Looking up, I saw Thalia and Artemis both staring at me slack-jawed.

"But… how?" Thalia asked breathlessly.

"Like I said, I'm cursed."

"But who would curse you in such a way?" Artemis questioned.

"Well, not me, specifically," I elaborated. "It seems that all children of my dad's are cursed so that our arrows will never reach their mark. As for who placed it, I'm guessing your brother, seeing as you seem genuinely surprised by this, and the two of you are the only ones with powers over archery."

"But why?" Thalia asked. "What does Apollo have against children of Poseidon?"

"Probably has something to do with Otos and Emphialtes," I explained.

Artemis sighed and looked skyward with an exasperated expression. "Yes, that would be a plausible reason for my brother to place such a curse. Those two were twin sons of Poseidon and superb hunters who could only be killed by each other. They also never stopped growing, quickly surpassing many giants in size, and vowed they would take me as a trophy when they grew tall enough to reach Olympus. I managed to trick them into killing each other, but I had no idea my brother would do something such as this."

"I mean, it's kind of sweet?" Thalia offered, uncertainly. "That your brother would care enough about you to do something like that. No offence, Percy."

"It's fine," I said waving it off. "It's not like he's the only god who has unfairly punished someone."

I straightened myself and made to keep walking, but Artemis reached out and grabbed my arm in a death grip.

"What, exactly, do you mean by that, Perseus?" She hissed. I could feel the anger pouring out of her, and saw Thalia backing away cautiously out of the corner of my eye. Rather than back down myself, though, I stood my ground and stared right back into her glowing, silver eyes.

"I mean that most of the enemies of Olympus that I've met and fought through the years are enemies you all made yourselves. Why do you think Medusa is the way she is?" I demanded, yanking my arm out of her grasp and taking a step closer. "Because _my father_ had his way with her in Athena's temple, knowing full well how insulting she would find that. But did she take it out on him? No! As always, it's the poor human who has the bad luck of just being _nearby_ when you gods are in a bad mood who pays the price."

"You dare…"

"I dare!" I roared. "You think you're any better, Agrotera? Why don't we ask Callisto, one of _your own Hunters,_ how she liked being turned into a bear before nearly being killed by her own son?"

"Callisto broke her vow!" Artemis cried.

"She was raped!" I shouted. I could feel the beast inside me fighting to get out, as a pounding filled my ears, and felt my eyes ignite in green flames. "Or how about Iphigenia? Who would have been sacrificed simply because her father forgot to make an offering to you? Or the victims of the Calydonian Boar? Or, I know, how about Actaeon or Sipriotes? A man has the gall to see through all this anger and hatred you carry and is enchanted by your beauty, and what do you do? You have him killed by his own hounds, while another young boy gets turned into a girl and forced into your hunt! You are just as bad as every other god, Artemis. Something doesn't go your way, or you feel you've been insulted just the slightest, and you decide to ruin the lives of innocent people so that the rest of us can remember that Olympus isn't to be messed with. You're nothing but a bunch of dictators and tyrants, and it's for that reason that I declared war on your father. I won't have my friends and family bow and grovel to rulers who would ruin their lives on a whim. If you all want to rule the world, I'm going to make damn sure you deserve it."

Artemis looked like she wanted to respond, her cheeks were glowing gold, and her expression furious, but I didn't give her the chance. I turned away from her with a scoff and continued marching. I spent my time in silence, taking deep breaths as I tried to keep from accidentally transforming. Already, I could feel my teeth had elongated, and the hair on my body had grown, so I closed my eyes, allowing my other senses to guide me while I tried to calm the maelstrom of anger inside my chest. Still, I could feel something watching us, and it kept me on edge the entire day as we marched through the forests of New Jersey.

Luckily, both Artemis and Thalia were used to hunting prey without pause, so we didn't need to stop to rest until that evening. By the time the sun started setting, we had covered a good twenty miles. Not nearly enough, but it was better than nothing.

"Let's take a break," I suggested.

"The sun will have completely passed the horizon within the hour," Artemis concurred. "It's best that we get some rest before then."

I nodded and turned my attention to the trees around us while Thalia threw herself on the snow at the base of a tree with a groan. "I haven't walked that much since we hunted that flock of Gryphons across the West coast."

"I'm pretty sure it's a pride of Gryphons," I replied, reaching into my pocket for a couple of the protein bars I always kept on me and tossing one to her. "You know, 'cause they're part lion."

"Nah, Gryphons fly, so they're a flock." I smirked, ripping open the wrapper and inhaling the snack, ignoring the foul taste. I watched as Thalia did the same, only for her eyes to widen as she struggled to force down the bite she had taken. " _Di Immortales!_ Are you trying to poison me, Kelp Head?"

"What's wrong?" I asked innocently, struggling not to laugh.

"What, in the name of the gods, did you just give me?!"

"Hermes-Brand Power Bar," I replied. "Guaranteed to provide you with everything you to stay in peak shape."

"It tastes like dirt sprinkled with sawdust and kitty litter!"

"How would you know what kitty litter tastes like?"

This earned a snort from Artemis, who had been watching our little exchange until now. Her cheeks burned a bright golden hue as we turned to her and she looked between us before huffing and turning away, making me snicker.

"What, exactly, is so funny?" She asked, stomping over to me.

"You," I replied, chuckling when I saw Thalia throw her head back against the tree with a groan. "Even though you don't look like a twelve-year-old anymore, it's still adorable watching you act like one."

"What is that supposed to mean?" She demanded, stomping her foot as her face flushed brighter. "I am over four thousand years old!"

"Not something most women would brag about."

"Why you -" Artemis looked ready to attack me, but was interrupted by an ear-splitting wail that pierced the air and seemed to come from all around us. Thalia as on her feet in seconds and standing next to Artemis, the both of them with their bows drawn and arrows knocked while I narrowed my eyes and looked between the trees surrounding us. For several moments we stood in tense silence before another shriek pierced the air. It sounded like something was being tortured, slowly, while thousands of nails were dragged across a chalkboard. A third one made us all flinch, and I had to fight not to cover my ears.

As the screams continued, the forest seemed to get darker, while it felt like the trees were bending toward us. I noticed Artemis' breath start racing, and placed a hand on her shoulder to calm her while taking a deep breath myself and nearly choking on the disgusting stench that greeted me. Whatever it was, it smelled like decay. A wet, sickening smell, like roadkill thrown into a swamp.

Luckily, while I couldn't track it by sound, I could easily detect the source of the stink filling the air. Nudging Thalia and Artemis, I nodded towards an opening in the trees which had become completely encased in shadow and they turned their bows in its direction as the sound of footsteps crunching through the snow filled the air, coming from everywhere.

*(OoO)*

Fear of a kind I had never felt before surged through me as the horrible wailing all around us pierced my ears. My first thought when I heard the torturous screams was of Pan and his ability to induce true Panic, but the God of the Wilds had faded years ago, and the sound we were hearing had a distinct edge of malice to it. Thalia and I drew our bows, but no matter how I tried, I could not pinpoint where the terrible sounds were coming from. As I struggled to locate our assailant, the forest itself seemed to close in on us, blocking out any remaining light from the setting sun. Once again, I was trapped, the weight of the sky bearing down on me with unrelenting force as I struggled to breathe. I feared that I would be crushed as I looked wildly around the trees for some sort of escape, when a large, warm hand completely covered my shoulder, the thumb brushing the back of my neck and bringing me back to the present.

The crunching of snow being crushed under heavy feet scraped my eardrums as Percy nudged me and Thalia, nodding towards a break in the strange wall of trees that seemed to have surrounded us. The crunching grew louder and another wailing shriek filled the air as we turned our bows in the direction he indicated. I narrowed my eyes as a pair of baleful red lights glowed ephemerally more than twelve feet off the ground.

Out of the shadows came a creature that, while clearly a monster, I couldn't possibly identify. It shambled on a pair of legs wider than my entire body, covered in thick, matted, brown fur and ending in massive hooves the size of my head. Its body was a mountain of thick muscle, with skin like the bark of a rotted tree that made it look like a mass of ancient, tangled roots. Its arms were easily as thick as its legs, the long, knife-like claws of its one hand nearly scraped the ground from its hunched posture while the other was wrapped around the handle of a massive, five-foot, rusted saw that would normally be used by two men to fell the largest of trees. From the creature's back sprouted a pair of tattered, leathery wings that ended in large spikes, and looked more suited for stabbing and slashing prey then achieving flight.

By far, the worst part of the creature, however, was rested above its towering form. The twin flames that announced the creatures arrival burned from within the blackened pits of what looked like the skull of a deer. The antlers twisted sinisterly around its head like branched ram's horns, brown with age while the deadly tips were stained from something else. At first, I thought the macabre sight was little more than a helmet, or some sort of decoration to intimidate prey, but as the bleached white skull creaked open, its top and bottom held together by lingering threads of tissue, and revealed a row of teeth that would have been more appropriate in the skull of a wolf than that of a deer, and I saw the slimy, pink tendril of the creature's tongue before it unleashed another echoing wail, I realised my folly. This morbid perversion of one of my own symbolic animals was not some decorative headwear, that was the creatures _head._

Once again, I was momentarily frozen, until the hiss of a blade being drawn and the sound of footsteps running ahead of me shocked me out of it, and Thalia and I opened fire on the beast while Percy charged it with what looked like a bronze dagger. The creature howled and swung its saw at him, forcing Percy to roll under it while Thalia and fired more arrows, only for them to bounce off its thick hide.

"What is that thing?!" Thalia shouted from beside me.

"I don't know!" I replied. "Just keep shooting."

The creature seemed to be content with ignoring our attempts to shoot it as it tried to swat Percy while he darted around it. For a creature of its size, it swung its weapon with surprising speed and dexterity, and Percy seemed to be having a hard time getting more than a glancing blow as he avoided them, the trees surrounding us being toppled as a result.

"Its legs!" He screamed as he rolled under the saw and delivered a quick swipe to the beast's thigh, nicking it before being backhanded into a nearby tree.

"Cover me!" I ordered Thalia as I dismissed my bow and summoned my own hunting knives. I sprinted toward the monster as it swayed drunkenly towards where Percy had collapsed only to have to roll to the side as it slammed the point of its wing into the ground where I had been less than a second before. I quickly scrambled to my feet, and tried to summon the power to blast the creature on the spot, but was shocked to see nothing happen. My moment of confusion cost me as the creature swiped its clawed hand at me, launching me back towards Thalia while slicing my leg. I slammed into the trunk of a tree, and my head spun as I heard the familiar crackle of Thalia's lightning before a bright flash filled my vision. The beast shrieked in pain, and my eyesight righted itself in time to see Thalia's distraught expression before the monster, barely singed, came barreling towards her, head down with the intent to gore her with its antlers.

I tried my best to get up, but my thigh made me stumble and I watched in horror as I was about to lose yet another lieutenant.

" _Thalia!"_ I screamed impotently as the monster knocked aside her spear and was moments from impaling her only for a dark blur to slam into her and send her flying towards me. My lieutenant slammed into me and I grunted as I cushioned her with my own body. Thalia groaned on top of me, and I grinned, wrapping my arms around her. "Are you alright?"

"Better than I was five seconds ago," Thalia replied. The monster howled and we rushed back to our feet to see Percy standing in front of it, one hand wrapped around its antlers, while the other plunged what I now saw to be the broken base of a sword into the creature's neck. Pulling the blade out, I grinned at the sight of some sort of black fluid coating the bronze before Percy threw it away, grabbing the other antler instead.

"Get ready to run!" He shouted, and I watched in horror as he slowly tried to push the antler out of where it had pierced the exposed flesh of his pectoral, just below his collarbone, while another prong sliced a line across his cheek. The monster seemed to recognise that it was stuck and swung its arms, clawing and attempting to hack into Percy with its saw. Luckily, the pelt of the Nemean Lion protected him from being hacked apart, though he still grunted with each blow.

I wrapped my arm around Thalia's shoulders and we watched, dumbstruck, as Percy snarled, his eyes igniting into a pair of green flames as he pushed back on the creature's antlers. All the while, he seemed to grow before our eyes while his face elongated and his bared teeth sharpened. With an earth-shaking roar, he extracted the last of the antler from his chest and twisted his arms, snapping it off the monster's head and driving it into its gut. The monster bellowed in pain, and Percy took the opportunity to use the antler in its gut and the one still attached to leverage the entire thing above his head with another roar. At this point, his clothes had vanished, being replaced with thick shaggy fur, so when the monster swung its saw wildly, it managed to dig into Percy's back and leave a jagged slice in his side before he snarled, the tensing of his muscles visible even underneath his fur, and hurled the monster across the small clearing with enough force to topple several trees in its path. Huffing, he turned to us and fell to all fours, the remainder of his human characteristics vanishing as he transformed fully.

"Get on!" He barked. Thalia and I obeyed without hesitation as we heard the rustling and crashing from where Percy had thrown that monstrosity, and scrambled up his side onto his back. Grabbing two thick handfuls of fur, I leaned down, the smell of sea salt and blood clogging my nostrils as Percy rose to his full height and began sprinting through the woods at a blistering pace. In less than a minute, the howling screeches of the creature that had nearly killed us were nothing more than echoes in the wind, and I allowed myself to relax into the thick fur underneath me.

 **A/N: There we go, a little bit of humor, a little bit of action, and some more insight into why Percy is the way he is. Anyway, hopefully you guys liked this, because it was not easy to write. Also, thanks for the predictions, I loved reading them. Unfortunately, whoever it was that guessed that the guy Artemis saw was Orion was incorrect. He is gonna be in this story, but I'm gonna use Riordan's version, who is a giant and the son of Gaea. I will give you guys a hint, though: the two times Arty had a vision of someone else while looking at Percy, they were of two different people. Now, with that said, I can't wait to see what you think, and if any of you can guess what the monster they fought was.**

 **TTFN!**


	12. Chapter 12

It took only three hours of non-stop running for Percy to carry us to Boston. We had exited the woods within minutes of fleeing from the strange monster that had attacked us, and I was thankful for both the dark of night and the Mist as we nearly flew alongside highways towards our destination. The streets of Boston were far from empty as we entered the city, but Percy managed to avoid most of it, skirting towards the harbor on the edge of town.

"What are you doing?" I asked. "The school is downtown."

"It's the middle of the night," Percy grunted. "She won't be there, and we need somewhere safe to recover."

"Where are you taking us?" Thalia asked.

"I have some friends who will house us for the night," he replied, lowering himself to the ground. "I need you two to get off so I can call her, though."

Thalia and I agreed and jumped off him after which he started to shrink, straightening up onto his hind legs as he did. The fur disappeared, and I fought the urge to gasp as the still-bleeding wounds he had received revealed themselves. Thalia was not as composed and rushed forward, only to stop as Percy held up a hand, telling her to wait as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a flashlight. Flicking the light on, he pointed it out towards the water of the Boston Harbor, and I watched as a fine mist floated before him, refracting the light. Reaching once more into his pocket, Percy took out a shining drachma and tossed it into the small rainbow.

"Iris, could you please connect me to Hylla of the Amazons?"

"Sure thing, Percy," a soft voice whispered,

"The Amazons?" I parroted, anger reigniting in my veins. "Why would we go to them?"

Percy didn't answer as the image of a young woman, nearly identical to the one who greeted me and Percy upon our arrival to his island refuge, with long, black hair and dark eyes.

"Percy?" She asked. "I wasn't expecting word from you for a couple weeks still."

"Hey, Hylla," he greeted. "I'm in Boston for something else, actually. Think you can spare a couple of rooms for the night?"

"Sure, is everything alright?" Hylla asked, her eyes drifting to where Thalia and I were standing behind him.

"Rough encounter with a monster," Percy explained. "We're near the harbor."

Hylla nodded and ended the call while Percy sighed, slumping against the wall of a nearby warehouse.

"What are you doing?" Thalia asked as he shrugged off his coat. Luckily, his pants seemed to have returned from his transformation this time, unlike when I first met him. His chest was still bare, his normally sun-kissed skin pale, and the hair on his chest and arms matted with thick, dark blood. The wound was deep, the creature's saw having rent through Percy's flesh on his back and side, and I was honestly surprised he was still conscious after having run for hours. I had seen countless wounds over the years, and the ones Percy had sustained should have been gushing blood with every beat of his heart, instead it oozed, as if it was already clotting and rolled slowly over the muscles of his torso as he took out a thermos and tossed it to Thalia.

I caught the familiar scent of nectar the moment she unscrewed the thermos, and waited while my lieutenant took a swig from it before doing the same, being considerably less cautious with how much I drank - the perks of being the one for whom the concoction was intended. Percy, however, didn't drink any of the dregs I left for him, instead reaching once more into his pocket and pulling out a battered pen. Closing his eyes, he clicked open the pen with one hand, and my eyes widened once more as the sword that had once been my best friend's extended in his hand. Anaklusmos glinted in the dim light of the nearby street lights - or what was left of it did. The hilt was battered, dents and rust reducing the guard to little more than a lump of metal that separated Percy's hand from broken blade. Its two-and-a-half-foot length had been broken, the remaining base measuring slightly longer than one of my hunting knives, with jagged and chipped edges on both sides.

Thalia and I watched as Percy held up the remains of the blade that had become as well known as he was, and run his other hand over it, bright white flames igniting between his fingers and making the celestial bronze glow. Before I could stop him, he flipped the sword in his hand and pressed it against his side, grunting as his flesh and blood hissed and bubbled while the smell of burnt flesh filled the air.

"What are you doing?!" Thalia screamed as Percy pulled the white-hot blade away from his freshly cauterized wound and pressed it against his chest, where the monster's antler had pierced his chest.

"Need to stop the bleeding," Percy snarled, his free hand digging into the wall behind him so hard that he was leaving claw marks. The procedure done, he tossed Anaklusmos to the ground and nearly collapsed, reaching for the thermos of nectar. Guilt suddenly twisted my stomach as I watched him desperately lap at the remaining dregs I had left after taking my fill.

" _Di Immortales,_ Percy, we could have shared!" Thalia yelled, pacing around in agitation.

"It's fine," Percy grunted. "I can't drink as much nectar as I used to, anyway."

"And why is that?" I asked suspiciously. "More importantly, how do you, a son of the Sea God, have the ability to summon fire like that?"

"Perk of being friends with the guy that gave it to us in the first place," Percy explained. My eyes narrowed, if Prometheus had done that for him, had the beings I had seen living on his island done something similar? Was that what Percy was planning? Befriend immortals and gain their blessings until he was powerful enough to challenge my father? "As for your first question, let's just say my tolerance has gotten lower over the last five years."

Before I could question him further, a car tore through the streets and came to a screeching halt in front of the three of us. The door opened and the girl Percy had messaged came out, scowling as she looked over his bloody and burned form.

"Really?" She asked, sighing as Perseus grinned crookedly at her. "You really know how to make my life difficult, don't you, Percy?"

"Yup," Perseus grunted as she helped him to his feet. "How're things going?"

"Oh, you know, same old, same old," the girl replied, ignoring Thalia and me. "The Queen is still torn between her usual bitchiness and trying to butter me up so I can help her shackle you to her bed."

"Not gonna happen." Perseus smiled and nodded his head towards where we were standing. "These are my friends."

"Not again, you mean." The girl looked us over, nodding respectfully towards me before turning back to him. "Reina said she had seen Diana with you, but I didn't really believe her."

My frustration grew as I watched the girl help Perseus into the car, seemingly ignoring me and Thalia, until it reached a boiling point. "That is enough!" Everyone froze and turned to look at me as my power danced and roiled just below the surface. "I have had enough of being dragged along like some sort of pet! You are going to answer my questions, Male. Now."

"And if I don't?" My power rose higher, and I started to direct it towards the Amazonian waif who stood by his side. She whimpered in pain, while Perseus' lips curled into a snarl, pushing himself off her and walking back towards me.

"Leave. Her. Alone."

"You dare command me, Male? I am an Olympian Goddess! I command respect with my presence alone!"

"You are a spoiled child who demands attention," Perseus growled, taking another step towards me. The ground shook slightly beneath my feet, and I could feel the winds begin to howl as he grew taller and the hair on his body grew thicker.

"And you are a beast," I countered. "Not even worthy enough to grovel at my feet."

Perseus continued to walk forward, and I didn't realise that I had been backing away from him until my back met the wall of the nearby warehouse while his chest pressed against my own. The sky pressed down on me as he glared into my eyes, and I felt like I would shatter under his gaze. The firmness of his chest, and the warmth of his breath on my face conjured visions to the forefront of my mind. I imagined him lifting me against the wall, plowing through my defences as he claimed me without remorse. I saw his hand around my throat, the other cupping my chest as he rammed into me. The vision played over and over, filling me with liquid fire, as I watched him extract pleasure with a single-minded vigor. I was horrified by the images, not by the violation, though, but from the fact that each vision was accompanied with pleasure like I had never felt before. In the middle of a heated argument with a disgusting male, and my mind was filled with thoughts that went against everything I stood for. Of broken vows and surrender. Begging for just a little more, wishing to be taken like none had done before.

He continued to stare at me, his eyes a baleful mixture of anger and protectiveness, a burning surging forth as well and I thought that my visions were about to come true, before they softened. He took a deep breath, the smell of smoke, sea salt, and damp earth filling me as his form flickered, the depths of his eyes boring into me threefold as they recalled something instinctive. Primal.

"You're afraid," he whispered, his voice the gentle breeze through a forest. A dream barely recalled upon waking. I wanted to snap at him for suggesting such a thing, but his hand rose and cupped my cheek, cutting me off as something familiarly foreign urged me to press against the rough, callused warmth. "Everything that has happened must be so confusing. I'm sorry."

"I don't understand." The words were unbidden. A fragile confession, drawn forward without intention. I could feel my aspects warring beneath the surface, clashing with the call of something even older.

"I should have done a better job explaining things," he admitted. "You didn't ask for this, and I haven't made it any easier." A deep breath, mustering courage. "Stay with me, _Fengari._ When our job is done, I will do my best to explain everything."

The words were not his own as Percy touched his forehead to mine, drawing a response that was not my own, yet spoken in my voice. "I'm here for you, _Agapite,_ you need not carry this burden alone."

Percy smiled and we separated, once more back in the present. My cheeks warmed as I realised that I had been leaning against his chest, and he quickly stepped away, grabbing his duster off the ground as he limped back to the car. I followed him, and got in the car behind Thalia as Percy took the passenger seat. The Amazonian put the keys in the ignition and started to drive pull out of the harbor.

"I.. I have a brother," Thalia said quietly. I turned to her, my eyebrow raised in curiosity. "Back in Jersey, you, or Diana I guess, asked why I wasn't surprised by the fact that you had Roman aspects. It's because while I'm a daughter of Zeus, my brother was… he's a son of Jupiter. We were told that we had to be separated, and my mom left him in the woods somewhere in California. I ran away not long after before meeting Luke and Annabeth."

"I see," I replied. Reaching over, I grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "Thank you for sharing this with us, Thalia."

Our attention turned to Percy, who looked unsurprised. "I figured you knew someone who was Roman," he said evasively. He paused for a moment, composing himself before continuing. "That thing we fought: it was the Jersey Devil."

"That thing's real?" The Amazonian asked, her eyes darting from the road to him.

Percy nodded. "As real as any other monster I've faced. The fact that it's not Greek _or_ Roman is probably why Artemis' powers didn't work on it."

"How do you know that's what it was?" I asked.

"Harpocrates," Percy explained. "He has access to knowledge that should be forbidden, and when I freed him, I learned some of it."

"He's the weird angel guy we saw sometimes around your island, right?" Thalia asked.

"Harpocrates is the God of Secrets," I told her. "There are certain truths that could unravel Olympus and the world at large. Harpocrates has the ability to reveal those truths, or, alternatively, he could wrap someone in a secret so powerful none would even be aware of their existence."

"Which, to a god, basically means he could make them fade," Percy finished. "Anyway, the gist of it is that there are monsters out there that don't belong to Greek and Roman myths, because of that, the powers of Greek and Roman gods don't work as well on them."

"How come we haven't seen them before now, though?" The Amazonian wondered.

"We smell Greek - or Roman in your case, Hylla - so we attract Greek and Roman monsters. If I had to guess, the Jersey Devil in particular might have started as a Greek or Roman monster."

"The way it screamed was familiar," Thalia agreed. "It reminded me of when Grover did something similar during our quest to rescue Milady."

"I thought so as well," I added. "I have only experienced Panic once, but that was too similar to be a coincidence."

"There's also the goat feet," Percy chimed in, and I rolled my eyes.

"So, Perce, why are you in Boston anyway?" The Amazonian, Hylla, asked after a minute.

"Looking for an art teacher," Percy grunted.

"We are hunting Medusa," I elaborated, swatting Percy. "We currently believe she has taken the position of a teacher at a local school."

"Oh, okay," Hylla hummed. "I was worried you were coming to check in on the Delos investigation already."

"What Delos investigation?" I asked, the mention of my mother's island prison jolting me to attention.

Percy glared at Hylla, who simply shrugged unapologetically, and sighed in defeat. "Calypso and Edward are currently trying to track down Delos."

"Why would you want to do that?" I questioned, my imagination and suspicion running wild.

"So he can free Leto, of course," Hylla said while Percy huffed and looked out the window. "He is the Oathbreaker, after all."

"I don't understand," Thalia said while I felt myself drift into a fog.

"Except for people like Hecate and Circe, who are literally witches, pretty much all curses from way back when are worded as oaths sworn on the Styx," Percy explained. "Calypso was trapped because your dad swore that she would never leave her island. So, when I broke her out, I broke his oath, so to speak."

"So you're tracking down Delos in order to free Milady's mother?" Thalia concluded.

Percy nodded.

"Why?" I asked, my voice distant as I tried to balance this revelation on top of the massive stack of questions that had formed since waking up on Percy's island weeks ago.

Percy shrugged. "Seems like the right thing to do."

*(OoO)*

It took a good twenty minutes to arrive at the small townhouse Hylla had acquired for us. I didn't really understand how the Amazons' politics worked, but, in the time since she had joined them, apparently she had worked her way up quite a bit. It still didn't stop the current queen Penthisilea from trying to chain me to her bed like a living sex toy every time I visited, but it did afford her certain luxuries and, more importantly, the privacy to help me on occasion. She also knew that there was a time and place for certain questions.

If there was one thing I appreciated about being Alpha of the lost, it was that they trusted me enough to not need me to explain everything. I knew there were risks and dangers that came with that kind of blind faith, but, in the five years since Kronos was defeated, pretty much every single member and I found ourselves at one point or another in a situation that called for us to put our lives in each other's hands. It wasn't so much that I liked playing things close to the chest, but after spending enough time with the God of Secrets, I had learned the value of being careful with what I said to who. On top of that, whenever I had to field questions about things people didn't understand (which, strangely enough, came more from the demigods I knew than the mortals), it seemed to follow a set pattern: it would start with what something was, then once I had explained it, would progress to how I knew the answer, to grilling me on things I'd rather not revisit over and over.

That was why I was extremely grateful when Hylla dropped us off and all I got was a look telling me her sister would be grilling me when I got back. The girls went inside almost immediately, with Thalia throwing me another questioning glance as well before probably going to find the first vaguely flat surface to throw herself on. Meanwhile, I simply willed some water out of the air to wrap around and clean the blood off me before reaching into my coat and pulling out my handy-dandy smokes.

Taking a deep breath of the fragrant smoke curling from my lips, my thoughts turned back to the chaos of the last hour or so as the last vestiges of pine trees and moonlace left me. I thought about how Artemis had shifted once Hylla had showed up - something I should've accounted for, but I had just been running for hours, bleeding like crazy and burned the wounds shut, so sue me. Diana was way more temperamental than Artemis, and way less happy about not being afforded the respect she thought she was due. In the moment, my patience had been at its limits and I couldn't help snapping back at her. Something in me was enraged and was demanding I put her in her place. Visions passed before my eyes as I approached her. Images of claiming her. Conquering her. Ripples ran up my spine at the phantom sounds of her moaning in my ear, begging for more as I exerted myself over her. I wanted nothing more than to show that I was the Alpha, and remind her in the most primal way possible.

Then, something changed. There was a flash of vulnerability in Diana's eyes and she shifted back into Artemis. In what should have been the perfect moment to press my advantage and tear her down, I found that I didn't want to. I looked into her eyes and I saw fear. Not of me, necessarily, but I was certainly a cause of it. In the little over a month since I had seen Lycaon about to attack her, everything Artemis had known for literally _thousands_ of years was being torn out from under her. I had ripped her away from the familiar and implicated her in my schemes that were almost a guaranteed one-way trip to Tartarus.

A stab of guilt pierced me at that moment, and, while I was no stranger to that feeling nor the accompanying resolve that usually quelled it, something else blossomed in my chest. I looked into her eyes and suddenly felt that I had to do everything in my power to make her feel better. It was a feeling that was familiar, similar to what I had felt near the end of the Second Titan War, but it was way stronger. It wasn't a desire to make Artemis feel better, but a need. Something inside me seemed to take over, and before I knew it the beast howling inside me had died down and I was cupping her cheek in my hand, whispering promises to her that I hadn't given to anyone before.

"You seem troubled."

I relaxed as Hestia appeared and her warmth blanketed me in comfort. She was in the shape of a middle-aged woman, sitting in a rocking chair beside me while working on some knitting.

"Isn't that a little cliche?" I asked, nodding towards the gently clacking needles.

"Perhaps," Hestia replied. "Tell me, do you plan to sit out here all night?"

"You know sleep and I haven't had the best relationship in a while," I countered. I looked down at my hand and scowled bitterly. "I guess I can consider myself lucky that I don't need to as much anymore."

"I'm glad you are still able to look on the bright side of things."

We sat there in silence for several minutes as she waited patiently for me to feel ready to share what was on my mind.

"Something about her," I muttered, blowing a plume of smoke in frustration. "I'm not sure what, but it feels like I'm being called. No..." I shook my head, my eyes closed as I tried to better word my thoughts. "Not me. It feels like there is something _in_ me being called to her. Several things, actually. Every time I look at her, it feels like there's an argument going on inside of me about how I should react."

Hestia didn't say anything right away, she merely took a deep breath, her relaxing aura getting stronger as she continued to rock in her chair. Her needles the only sound between us as what looked like a sheet made out of gently crackling flames slowly took shape.

"You know, probably better than any of us, that I cannot give you a straight answer," she said quietly. "Even if I had an explanation for these… urges, you describe, I would be forbidden from elaborating."

"That's alright," I conceded. "It just feels good to talk to you about this."

"I'm honoured that you feel that way," Hestia replied, standing up and hugging me while her knitting continued, floating in the air before her seat without her. "Follow your heart, Nephew. It has rarely led you astray." I pulled away and raised a disbelieving eyebrow causing her to chuckle. "I said rarely. Besides, maybe you aren't the only one feeling these sensations."

With her piece said, Hestia vanished, leaving me with the lingering feeling of warmth and security as I sighed and entered the townhouse. Thalia was gently snoring on the couch right by the door, and I couldn't help but smile as I stooped over and picked her up, carrying her to one of the bedrooms further inside. She was light as a feather - a perk of having actually finished growing up rather than accepting immortality of any kind - and I could feel eyes on me as I placed her on one of the beds, tucking her in before returning to the couch, where I sat myself down, pulling out Riptide with one hand and a new cigar with the other. Once it was lit and between my lips, I reached back inside my duster and pulled out my tattered notebook.

It had taken a while to figure out my pen actually had ink, but I was thankful nonetheless.

 **A/N: Not entirely happy with how this turned out, but I'm done trying to improve it. It did everything it was supposed to, I guess, so that's gonna have to be enough. Anyway, I like whoever made the comparison between Percy and Bigby Wolf, as they go deeper than you'd think. That being said, the smoking thing was mostly to give Percy a vice that would annoy people while being. in his case, harmless. I really like the predictions you guys are coming up with, though. It feels great to write something, and see that people are actually reading between the lines. That being said, I think we're due for some long-awaited exposition in the next chapter...**

 **Anyway, thanks again for reading and reviewing, and I'll see you guys next time!**

 **TTFN**


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